Enjoy free bike ride to poll booths in 4 cities
Citizens of Kolkata, looking forward to exercising their franchise during the ongoing elections would be able to enjoy a faster conveyance to their polling booth, free-of-cost.
Metro rail services in the city resumed today after a gap of about two months. The regular services remained suspended in May following lockdown to fight the second wave.
Special trains, however, were operated for the railway and metro staff along with those in the essential services category. The resumption of services brought major relief to the commuters, especially office-goers. With fewer buses hitting the city roads, the office-goers have had a tough time reaching their workplace.
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The higher fares charged by most of the private buses added a burden on the budget of the commuters. Since my office re-opened last month, the daily commute has given me more worries than any other work, claimed Sumana Saha, an office-goer. Every day before stepping out for work, I used to pray to God that I do not have to cram into a crowded bus.
The rush would be worse in morning hours when Covid norms would not be there in anyone’s mind but being able to board a bus used to be the main concern, said Saha.
The metro services have come as a blessing at a time when a commute in a public bus during office hours is like a nightmare. I am so relieved to be able to avail myself of the metro services for my daily office commute, said Ritika Das, a marketing professional.
However, even as the state government allowed the metro to resume with 50 per cent seating capacity, the norm was violated on the first day of the restarting of services. Many commuters complained that the passengers did not follow the rule of alternate seating arrangement in the underground transport today.
Meanwhile, the Kolkata Metro Railway has decided to add 16 more services in the morning and evening peak hours from Monday. Starting from 19 July, the city metro will run 208 daily services instead of 192 services from Monday to Friday to cater to the rush of passengers.
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