Kolkata: Office goers push up footfall on Sealdah-Sector V Metro on Day II

KOLKATA: A large number of commuters from the city and its southern and northern fringes on Friday chose to use the East-West Metro’s Sealdah-Sector V corridor that started operations a day earlier. Quite a few of Thursday’s 31,037 passengers had only been there because of the excitement of travelling on the first day’s trains to and from Sealdah. On Friday, most passengers were office goers.
The upward trend in footfall was clear from the crowds at Sealdah Metro station since morning. By 5pm, 22,608 people had used the corridor. Of these, 11,515 tickets had been punched at Sealdah. On Thursday, the 5pm passenger count was 18,154, of which Sealdah clocked 7,706. On Friday, 31,883 people took the East-West Metro.

Long-distance travellers benefited from the new station since the corridor is the city’s first mass urban transport to connect with a major railway station.
At 9.30am, Ritam Hossain walked 50m from Sealdah Metro station to ER’s main block with luggage. The 21-year-old was returning to his home in Malda. Loaded with his belongings from his Techno India Polytechnic College hostel in Sector V, he boarded a Sealdah-bound train from Sector V at 9am. “Instead of paying Rs 450 for an app cab, I paid just Rs 20 for the Metro ride,” Hossain said.
He wasn’t the only one saving cab expenses. Barnali Sinha, a researcher at Rajabazar Science College and resident of Salt Lake’s EC Block, said, “I was paying Rs 600 every day. Now I pay only Rs 60 — Rs 40 for Metro rides, and Rs 20 for bus to and from Science College. And think of the time I am saving.”
The Salt Lake stations were less crowded in the office hours, compared to Sealdah. Scores flocked to Sealdah to travel to the offices at Karunamoyee and Sector V. “The Metro feels safe during the pandemic. I have stopped taking packed buses,” said Abhijit Mondol, a 54-year-old clerk at Bidyut Bhavan. He came to the Sealdah Main section on a local train, and it took him three minutes to walk to the Metro station.