Trains hit by bandh, airport normal

The 6am to 4pm bandh was called against the 'inaction' by the state and central governments to check the price rise.It stalled activities at major commodity markets including bullion, metal, jute & jute goods, oilseeds and foodgrains in West Bengal.The Calcutta Stock Exchange, however, remained open.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) banned the visitors' entry inside the airport buildings to avoid overcrowding as many passengers reached the airport long before morning to avoid being stuck on the way due to the bandh.

 

Eastern Railway (ER) trains faced obstruction in Howrah and Sealdah divisions but train services in Asansol and Malda divisions were normal.

On the Sealdah division, obstruction was caused at Kankinara, Kalyani, Simanta and Payradanga stations on the main line section and also at Thakurnagar, Gabordanga, Habra and Bongaon stations on the Bongaon section.Banana leaves were thrown on overhead wires at Betheria Ghola station on Canning section at 4:10 am.

The other stations in the Sealdah division which witnessed obstruction include Mallikpur, Baruipur and Lakshmipantipur stations and at Lake Gardens and Akra stations on the Budge Budge section.

On the Howrah-Barddhaman main line section, obstruction was made at Rishra, Seoraphuli and Baidyabati stations and at Kamarkundu, Chandanpur and Jaugram stations on the chord line section.Moreover, obstruction was observed at Dumurdaha, Nabadwip, Purbasthali and Belerhat stations on the Bandel-Katwa section and at Simlagarh station on the Bandel-Barddhaman section.

Many of ER's trains were cancelled this morning which comprise Howrah-Ranchi Shatabdi Express, Howrah-Malda Janshatabdi Express, Sealdah-Asansol Intercity Express, Howrah-Dhanbad Black Diamond Express and Howrah-Dhanbad Coal Field Express to name a few.Among the trains which were rescheduled include Poorva Express, Howrah-Bhopal Express, Kolkata-Jammu Tawi Express, Kanchanjunga Express, Kolkata-Delhi Lalquila Express, Sealdah-Saharsa Express and Uttarbanga Express.

However, ER was able to maintain its suburban EMU (Electric Multiple Unit) services on many sectionS like Sealdah-Dankuni, Bandel-Naihati, Sealdah-Barrackpore and Sealdah-Ashoknagar of the Sealdah division.

On the Howrah division, EMU services were maintained on Howrah-Barddhaman chord line and also between Howrah and Konnagar on Howrah-Bandel main line.

The long-distance trains which arrived at Howrah station include Jodhpur Express, Shaktipunj Express, Mithila Express, Saraighat Express, Jamalpur Express, Danapur Express and Kamrup Express.

For the South-Eastern Railway (SER), train services were partially affected on Howrah-Kharagpur, Howrah-Amta, Panskura-Haldia and Tamluk-Digha sections in Kharagpur division and on the Adra-Asansol section in the Adra division, an SER release said.Agitation by the bandh supporters was witnessed at different stations like Durgachak, Jakpur, Muradih, Madhukunda, Tamluk, Bagnan, Madpur, Bauria, Munsirhat, Dasnagar and Ramrajtala.

As many as seven EMU locals were cancelled.

The Howrah-Ranchi Shatabdi Express was cancelled while trains that were short terminated include Purulia-Howrah express at Santragachi, Puri-Howrah Jagannath Express at Santragachi, Adra-Howrah Passenger at Kharagpur and Bhadrak-Howrah Passenger at Kharagpur.Other trains like Dhauli Express, Howrah-Barbil Jan Shatabdi Express, Ispat Express, Falaknama Express, Howrah-Purulia Rupasi Bangla Express, Shalimar-Adra Aranyak Express were running as per schedule.

The bandh failed to impact the operations of the Kolkata Dock System (KDS) and Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) of KoPT where loading and unloading operations were reported to be normal.

"Despite the bandh, KoPT witnessed loading and unloading of 26 vessels against the normal average of 25 vessels per day.

The railway operations within the port premises was also normal. Staff attendance was almost normal at HDC while at KDS, the attendance among the cargo handling workers stood at about 90 per cent with the overall staff attendance being 68 per cent", a KoPT spokesperson said.

The bandh saw few commuters for the Kolkata Metro which handled less than 30 percent of its average daily traffic.

Also, the frequency of the Metro was raised to 15 minutes as compared to the usual eight minutes.

The air traffic was unaffected at the Netaji Subhas International Airport in Kolkata as all inbound and outbound flights were running on schedule.