WB govt, Railways set to discuss resumption of local trains

The West Bengal government and the Eastern Railway authorities will hold a meeting today (November 2) to discuss the resumption of suburban train services.

The state government has sent a letter to the general manager of Eastern Railway, seeking discussions about operating a few pairs of suburban trains daily while following COVID-19 regulations.

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A senior Eastern Railway official said, “The general manager of Eastern Railway and other railway officials will be present in the meeting. The state chief secretary and the home secretary will also be present on behalf of the state government. Discussions will be held on the resumption of local train services.”

However, the Bengal government has an idea to launch local trains in a virtual system like Metro. The metro service has been resumed in the city of Kolkata using the virtual method. There are discussions that the same procedure will be followed for local train services.

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Earlier, the number of passengers on local trains in Kolkata was 35 lakhs every day. The government is planning to resume the local train service on a small scale during the office hours. 

On Saturday (October 31), Additional Chief Secretary (Home) HK Dwivedi had urged the Railways to run a few pairs of suburban trains daily after commuters protested at Howrah station.

Dwivedi wrote in a letter, “Rather than resorting to unquiet means, we could and discuss how a few pairs of trains could be run locally in the morning and in the afternoon hours to serve the general commuters at large.”
 

• local train
• kolkata
• west bengal governmnt
• railway ministry