Commuters heaved a sigh of relief when the power and traffic block at Sealdah Station was withdrawn two hours before the scheduled time and the first train, 31518 ShantipurSealdah local, arrived at platform number five at 1.18 pm at one of the busiest railway stations of the country. The divisional railway had taken a block from 2 am on 7 June to 2 pm today during which platforms one to five were closed for train movements for performing the second phase of the capacity enhancement works at Sealdah station.

The project included the crucial tasks of completing the pre non-interlocking and non-interlocking work towards the extension of platforms numbers one to five at Sealdah Main and North sections among other works. To enable the works, the divisional railway cancelled more than 90 local train services and regulated around 147 while short terminating/short originating them at Dum Dum Junction and Dum Dum Cantonment stations. While the work was being carried out on war footing, several commuters were stranded at Sealdah station last night. According to the commuters, following the cancellation of numerous suburban services, the trains were overcrowded. “I was supposed to reach my workplace at 10 am. But somehow managed to board a train at 11 and reached my destination at 2pm,” claimed a woman commuter who was travelling to and fro Barrackpore.

“The scenario was worse while returning. The trains were packed and several people were hanging on to the doors. I had extreme difficulties in jostling through the choca-block coaches to be able to board one. This morning again I felt suffocated throughout the journey,” she added. The situation improved in the second half of the day after the resumption of local train services. After the completion of the NI works, the Main and North sections of Sealdah station were Interlocked with 449 routes at 12 pm today. Following the completion of the crucial tasks and a few others that are in the pipeline, the divisional authorities are putting effort to introduce 12 coach local trains in this sector from next month.