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Kolkata: On Monday, Metro Railway added 22 additional services to the Blue Line, anticipating a surge in traffic following its integration with a fully operational Green Line. This meant increased frequency, with the gap between trains during peak hours reduced from 6 minutes to 5. However, this did little to relieve commuters on the alignment, particularly for those boarding or alighting at Esplanade station. It felt like Durga Puja on Monday, nearly a month ahead of the festival, when even getting a toehold is a challenge in metro coaches. The Green Line interfaces with the North-South or Blue Line at Esplanade, which was teeming with people all day."It is so suffocating to board a Blue Line train from Esplanade after a relatively more comfortable journey on the Green Line," said Madhumita Sen, a Salt Lake resident, who used the Esplanade interchange on Monday morning to take her sons to St Xavier's School. "I hope it will be better when I come back in the afternoon to pick up my sons from school," she added.Naina Agarwal, a resident of Howrah Maidan, echoed this sentiment. She also used Esplanade interchange to pick up her daughters, Disha and Davina, students at Loreto School, in the afternoon. "I could hardly feel the AC in the short stretch we travelled to Esplanade to switch metro lines to Howrah. It felt like a local train. There was no seat, and the three of us could barely stand," Agarwal said.The addition of more services did not make much of a difference to commuters as doors were not getting shut due to overcrowding during peak hours. The situation was slightly different during non-rush hours at the Esplanade station, as Metro and RPF personnel faced the most difficult time controlling the crowd."With East-West Metro's missing link finally getting established, the city's three bustling transport hubs are now interconnected. The crowd at Esplanade proves that the city commuter's travelling options have multiplied exponentially," a Metro official said. From early morning, passengers from Sector V were alighting at Sealdah or Howrah railway station to proceed to the city's nerve centre, Esplanade, and access the Blue Line to go their different ways."The superior Green Line stations are large, with anticipation of huge footfalls. But the Blue Line's Esplanade station is much smaller in area, with hardly any space for extra ticket counters or automatic vending machines," an official said. TOI reported on March 25, 2024, that the key Blue Line station recorded a three-fold jump in ticket sales since the E-W Metro's truncated Green Line section from Esplanade to Howrah Maidan became operational on March 15, 2024.
Kolkata: Commute in Kolkata changed forever on Monday, the first weekday since Metro Green Line between Salt Lake Sector V and Howrah Maidan became fully operational on Friday evening. Several thousand people, who used buses and autos to travel to their workplace and back, switched to metro. Such was the rush that trains on both the Green and Blue Lines were thrown out of gear. Closing the train and platform screen doors at Mahakaran Station proved a challenge on Monday evening, holding up trains on Green Line.As more people become familiar with the network, Metro expects a further surge in tr ...Read More >
The trial runs of the Meerut Metro, part of the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) project, have been completed and three-coach trains are being tested according to the timetable, officials of the NCR Transport Corporation (NCRTC) said. The 82km RRTS corridor linking Delhi, Ghaziabad, and Meerut with Namo Bharat trains is nearing completion and awaits formal inauguration. Meerut has a 23km RRTS network with 13 stations from Meerut (south) to Modipuram (depot). The Namo Bharat trains will halt ...Read More >
Heavy rains in Kolkata caused electrocution deaths. Mamata Banerjee visited waterlogged areas and promised jobs for victims' families. Many parts of the city are inundated, disrupting transport. Metro services were suspended. The weather office forecasts more rain. Kolkata Municipal Corporation teams are working to drain water. Train services are also affected. The IMD predicts more rainfall in several districts. At least seven to eight persons died due to electrocution as torrential rains hit K ...Read More >
Mumbai: Good news for Mumbaikars and daily commuters on Central line. Central Railway will soon get an updated AC local train. The new rake which will undergo extensive testing, will be pressed into service just before the onset of the summer season, providing some relief to commuters. What will be different from the existing AC local train, is that some of its machinery will be located under the coach, known as the under-slung system. What is a slung system? A slung system train local is a train with electrical equipment located below the rake or under the train. This design aims to increa ...Read More >
Kolkata: A Class 11 student at Bagbazar High School was stabbed to death by a classmate during a fight at a crowded Dakshineswar metro station on Friday afternoon.As Manojit Yadav, 17, lay bleeding in front of the ticket counters, panicked commuters screamed in fear. The boy died while friends were rushing him to Baranagar State General Hospital, police said.Rana Singh, 18, who allegedly stabbed Manojit, was arrested late on Friday at Howrah station while he was trying to flee, officers said.Barrackpore police commissioner Murlidhar Sharma said Manojit, accompanied by the student who allegedly ...Read More >
Kolkata, Oct 1 (PTI) Around 35.5 lakh passengers have so far availed the Kolkata Metro Rail services during the festive period of Durga Puja - September 27 (Panchami) to September 30 (Astami) - an official said. Over 4 lakh passengers booked tickets through the dedicated 'Aamar Kolkata Metro' app during the period, he said. On September 30 ('Astami'), 8.27 lakh people preferred travelling by metro railway, the official said in a statement. "More than 6.37 lakh passengers travelled on the 'Blue Line' (Dakshineswar-Sahid Khudiram) and over 1.65 lakh passengers travelled on the 'Green Line' (H ...Read More >
Mumbai, Oct 8 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched the 'Mumbai One' mobile app which enables commuters to book a single QR-based digital ticket usable across Metro, Monorail, buses and local trains in the city and surrounding regions. Described as India's first integrated common mobility app, it will do away with the need for multiple paper tickets or separate bookings, officials said. The app, developed for the entire Mumbai Metropolitan Region, will be available for downloading from 5 am on Thursday, they added. Commuters, however, will not be able to book 'season' or ...Read More >
Kolkata, Jul 20 (PTI) With an eye on assembly polls next year, the TMC is gearing up to turn its annual Martyrs' Day rally into a powerful platform to sharpen its Bengali pride narrative and hit out at the BJP over the alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking migrants in saffron-ruled states. Set against the backdrop of rising tensions over the linguistic profiling and treatment of Bengali migrant workers in BJP-governed states such as Assam, Odisha, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi, the July 21 rally in Kolkata's Esplanade is expected to see Trinamool Congress supremo and Chief Minister Mamata B ...Read More >
New Delhi: Karnataka and several other states have requested the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) to study extensively for the new semi-high-speed Namo Bharat corridors. The Namo Bharat corridors, which aims to expand intercity connectivity all throughout the country, is a crucial step of the government and the states are looking to expand the reach of India's first regional rapid transit system. What has Karnataka requested of NCRTC? According to news agency PTI, the Karnataka government has asked the NCRTC to develop four semi‑high speed Namo Bharat routes from Bengal ...Read More >
An unauthorised protest by CR at the heart of Mumbai left the city derailed for more than 45 minutesOn Thursday evening, Central Railway (CR) employees staged a massive 'Rail Roko' protest at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) against Government Railway Police (GRP) officials after an FIR was registered against two CR engineers over the Mumbra train tragedy of 9 June. The spontaneous protest paralysed Mumbai's Central line for nearly an hour and resulted in the deaths of two pedestrians ...Read More >
New Delhi: Alleging "blatant misuse" of agencies to defame its leaders, AAP on Thursday questioned why the first information report filed against former Delhi ministers Saurabh Bharadwaj and Satyendar Jain was being kept under wraps and "selective" press notes were being leaked to the media.Bharadwaj, who is Delhi AAP convener, alleged that only two former ministers were named in the case without any reasonable cause while all the officers of the health and public works departments, who were actually responsible for executing the hospital projects, were spared. "Is the FIR so baseless that BJP ...Read More >
Kolkata News: The Kolkata Metro has announced that trains will not run between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade on August 3, as they will be testing the Automatic Train Operation (ATO) system on that day. However, regular Metro services will continue as usual along the North-South corridor, from Dakshineswar to Shahid Khudiram stations, a Metro spokesperson said. ...Read More >
Kolkata, Sep 15 (UNI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived here, is scheduled to inaugurate a key defence conference at Fort William, the headquarters of the Indian Army's Eastern Command in the city. "After programmes in Assam, I landed in Kolkata, where I will take part in the Combined Commanders' Conference tomorrow," Modi said before arriving in the city to unveil a three-day armed forces conference at Fort William. Modi also shared visuals of a grand welcome at Kolkata Airport last evening as he waved to a large crowd of supporters. The combined defence conference, held this morni ...Read More >
New Delhi: The last pending station on the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) corridor at Sarai Kale Khan is all set to begin operations. Its inauguration is likely to be held on September 17. The new station will reduce the travel time between Sarai Kale Khan and Meerut to under one hour, with stops at each station, officials of the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) said on Saturday. Sources said the inauguration of the corridor is likely to be held on September 17, which is also Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday. However, there is no offici ...Read More >
Kolkata: Festivities at two of central Kolkata's prominent venues -- Md Ali Park and Santosh Mitra Square -- saw contrasting developments on Sunday, with the former settling a stand-off with cops while the latter plunging deeper into controversy.On Sunday afternoon, organisers of Md Ali Park puja declared there was no longer any dispute with cops. They clarified that Kolkata Police extended full cooperation, ensuring smooth arrangement for pandal-hoppers. On Panchami, tensions had flared, with or ...Read More >
Mumbai: Senior BJP leader Ravindra Chavan is all set to become the next Maharashtra BJP chief as he filed his nomination for the post of party's state president on Monday. Mr. Chavan presented the nomination forms to Union Minister Kiran Rijiju, who has been appointed as a central observer for the elections by the BJP. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and outgoing party chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule were present on this occasion. With no other nomination being filed for the post, Mr. Chavan is certain to become the next state president of Maharashtra BJP, said party leaders. The ...Read More >
KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Friday ordered traffic control in Kolkata during the Trinamool Congress' martyrs day rally on July 21. The court imposed certain restrictions on the movement of processions to the 21 July manch at Esplanade on Monday with an aim to give office goers a respite. The police have been instructed to make sure there are no traffic jams between 9 am and 11 am on roads leading to the Calcutta High Court, Central Kolkata, and within a 5 km radius. The Kolkata Police Commissioner will be responsible for ensuring this. Justice Tirthankar Ghosh ordered that there sho ...Read More >
Dimapur, Jul 18 (PTI) Two persons have died of Japanese Encephalitis (JE) in Nagaland, a health department official said on Friday. Chief Medical Officer, Dimapur, Dr Yartenla Jamir, said that of the seven JE cases detected in Dimapur, Chumoukedima, and Niuland districts, two persons have died so far. She expressed concern over the rise in Japanese encephalitis (JE) cases in the three districts, especially during the monsoon season, which increases the risk of transmission. The Health department has urged district administrations to issue a public advisory on JE prevention measures and to i ...Read More >
Thiruvananthapuram: Union Minister Suresh Gopi stirred controversy on Tuesday by claiming that those elected by "corpses" are now serving the state. Speaking at a neighbourhood meet called "Kalungu" in Idukki district, he alleged that cadavers from 25 years ago had cast votes in Kerala elections. Media reports have previously highlighted incidents of deceased voters being listed as active in Kerala's voter list, he said, while indirectly referring to the accusations of "scientific rigging " against the Left parties. The minister was responding to allegations of voter fraud in Thrissur consti ...Read More >
While approving the project in 2020, the Union government had asked the state to induct coaches under the lease model to reduce project costs A Karnataka Cabinet meeting on November 28 approved the state's share of Rs 2,135 crore for the purchase of 306 train coaches (rolling stock) for the Bengaluru suburban railway project. "The estimated cost for the rolling stock for the project is Rs 4,300 crore, out of which the state will bear Rs 2,135 crore (50 percent) and the remaining 50 percent will be borne by the Union government. This amount will be provided to K-RIDE to purchase 306 coaches o ...Read More >
Srinagar, June 28: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha today chaired a high-level meeting with members of civil society organisations, religious leaders, elected representatives, and representatives from the trade and business communities to review arrangements for the upcoming Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra. Among those present were Chief Minister Omar Abdullah; Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo; Special Director General (Coordination) S.J.M. Gillani; Principal Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor and CEO of Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board, Dr. Mandeep K. Bhandari; Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Vijay Bidhuri; ...Read More >
Mumbai: Mumbai began its week under the grip of relentless rain and rising tides on Monday. The city recorded its first high tide of the day at 6:43 am, peaking at 3.89 metres, coinciding with heavy overnight showers that left large parts waterlogged. The tide has since been receding, with the lowest level of 2.1 metres expected at 12:45 pm, before another high tide of 3.36 metres at 6:13 pm. Waterlogging Reported Citywide The combination of intense rainfall and high tide conditions brought familiar monsoon woes to the city. Waterlogging was reported in several neighbourhoods, including King ...Read More >
New Delhi, July 18: Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is exploring the possibility of hosting India for a white-ball series in early August, taking advantage of a rare opening in both nations' schedules. Final discussions are expected to take place this week on the sidelines of the ICC meetings in Singapore. This follows after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) mutually agreed to defer the white-ball series, three ODIs and three Twenty20 Internationals, between Bangladesh and India in August 2025 to September 2026. Security concerns due to the state o ...Read More >
Sydney's wettest August in 27 years has tipped the city's recent climate into uncharted territory. Analysing the complete weather history at Observatory Hill dating back to 1858 reveals rainfall during the past six years has been the highest on record. Since January 2020, the city has collected more than 9,300 millimetres -- beating the old record of 9,120mm from 1985 to 1990. Considering heavy rain will continue this week and more than four months remain in 2025, the record total will surge e ...Read More >
Kolkata (PTI): Torrential overnight rain left Kolkata paralysed on Tuesday, killing at least seven people due to electrocution and bringing life in the metropolis to a grinding halt as large swathes were submerged, transport services crippled, and traffic movement thrown out of gear. According to IMD data, with an average of 251.4 mm overnight downpour, this was the third-highest September month rainfall, which battered the city in nearly half a century, with some pockets receiving as high as 332 mm of rains in just a few hours. The relentless downpour caused massive flooding across the city ...Read More >
Announcing compensation of Rs 2 lakhs to the families of the deceased, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that Bnegal government will provide jobs to the next kin of the deceased persons who died due to electrocution yesterday, if CESC does not offer jobs to them. At least ten people have died in Bengal, with 8 in Kolkata, due to electrocution following torrential rains on Monday night to Tuesday morning. During a Durga Puja inauguration at her own Assembly constituency ...Read More >
The services will be thrown open to the public on Wednesday. Fadnavis flagged off the train from Dahisar East and travelled to Kashigaon, along with Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik, and Mumbai Mayor Ritu Tawde. Speaking to reporters, Fadnavis said that an easy and accessible transportation system is being developed in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, integrating the metro, e-buses and water transport to make the city the most accessible in the country. A m ...Read More >
New Delhi: The Sarai Kale Khan Namo Bharat station, which will be the converging point for three Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) corridors, is ready for operations. Trial runs have been concluded with the state govt to take a final decision on when it can open for public use."The final touches are being given to the station," said an official of the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), which is executing the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor. Sarai Kale Khan is set to become a major transport hub with the presence there of RRTS, Delhi Metro Pink Line, Hazrat Nizamuddi ...Read More >
New Delhi, Oct 15 (PTI) To expand the footprint of India's first regional rapid transit network, several states, including Karnataka, have approached the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) to prepare detailed studies for the new semi-high-speed Namo Bharat corridors aimed at boosting intercity connectivity. The Karnataka government has approached the NCRTC for four semi-high-speed Namo Bharat corridors from Bengaluru to strengthen regional transport links across the southern state and its neighbouring regions, an official told PTI. The proposed corridors include Bengaluru- ...Read More >
Kolkata, Apr 6 (PTI) Services on the Blue line of Kolkata Metro were disrupted for half an hour on Monday after a 35-year-old man made a suicide attempt at M G Road station, an official said. The incident took place at 11:35 am and the man, who jumped before an approaching train, was immediately rescued by the alert Metro personnel present, a Metro spokesperson said. Normal services resumed over the entire stretch of the Blue line - between Dakshineswar and Sahid Khudiram from 12.05 am. In the meantime, truncated services operated between Maidan and Sahid Khudiram and DumDum-Dakshineswar st ...Read More >