A day after the high level meeting over resumption of suburban train services, state government today urged Railways to operate “sufficient number” of trains for the convenience of passengers.

State home secretary HK Dwivedi today sent a note to the Railways with this request stating that it is necessary for decongesting the movement of passengers amidst maintenance of Covid protocols.

He requested for thermal scanning at all the entry points of the railway stations and assured of complete support from the state government.

Highlighting the “imperative and constraints of the existing pandemic situation”, Mr Dwivedi stressed on the need to adhere to strict physical distancing norms and public health protocol.

“In this context in order to decongest the processes relating to evacuation or dispersal or movement of commuters at large I am directed to request you to run sufficient number of suburban local trains for the daily passengers connecting different suburban nodes with Howrah and Sealdah with strict observance of the norms of covid including proper sanitisation, physical distancing and mandatory wearing of mask to prevent the spread of the pandemic. Provision of thermal scanning should also be made at the entry point of the railway stations. The state government assures of necessary support to railways in this regard,” read the note.

At the high-level meeting yesterday, railway authorities expressed keenness to resume local train services in Bengal allowing 50 per cent of passenger strength and ensuring that COVID-19 safety protocols are followed strictly. Initially, the Railways are planning to resume the operations with 10-20 per cent of the normal services which will be slowly increased to 25 per cent.

Planning on ticketing, route selection and the number of trains to be operated are being made and the final decision on resumption of the services will be taken at a meeting on 5 November.

However, passengers had expressed dissatisfaction at the decision of the railways saying that a 10 per cent strength would be too low to accommodate them during office hours and had demanded that adequate number of trains should be run for their convenience.