In three days, under-river East-West Metro has become part of weekday commute routine

KOLKATA: There were no Monday blues for office goers from Howrah as they zipped into their workplaces in AC comfort. Undoubtedly, East-West Metro’s newest Metro line from Howrah Maidan to Esplanade, across the river Hooghly, is ready to become a transport lifeline. CBD also gave a thumbs up to the new Metro connection, which can take people all the way to Ruby crossing, thanks to interfaces at Esplanade and New Garia.
India Post official Payel Karmakar was all smiles when she got into the Metro embedded inside Howrah station.“I reached my office at 11 am today. All this time I have been watching the Metro station (Mahakaran) coming up right in front of the office. On the other hand, Howrah Metro station was also being constructed right before my eyes. Finally, the much-awaited operations have started. Life couldn’t be easier,” she added. Karmakar got herself a smart card, to avoid the serpentine queues at Howrah Metro station. “Now, I, too, am a Metro commuter,” she said, flashing her smart card, in tune with Metro Railway’s latest slogan: “Amar Metro Amar Gorbo (my Metro, my pride)”, as it were. The slogan has been engraved in the new East-West Metro stations.
“All of us who travel to Kolkata from the suburbs six days a week and suffer the dual ordeal of travelling in packed local trains and then boarding uncomfortable public buses couldn’t have asked for anything else,” Baidyabati resident Swagata Banerjee, who works in a restaurant in Bertram Street, said. “It took me 40 minutes to travel by a Bandel-Burdwan local train. Another 20 minutes, and I was at my workplace. The Metro’s biggest advantage is not the comfort of the AC or the swank coaches. Time is the greatest advantage of travelling by a Metro,” he said.
Sandeep Maheshwari, a resident of Sandhya Bazar in Howrah Maidan, reached his Mangoe Lane office near Dalhousie in 20 minutes. “It would take me anything between an hour and one hour 10 minutes to reach my office from my residence. Though the distance is not much, the bus would stop at random places to pick up passengers.Traffic snarls on Howrah bridge, Brabourne Road and Canning Street crossing would cause further delay. But today I reached the office in 20 minutes in the Metro without upsetting my mood or breaking into a sweat,” said Maheshwari, head accountant in a private firm.
Many regular commuters unaware of the opening of the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade link on Friday availed the service for the first time on Monday. “On Friday a colleague told me how comfortably he travelled to our workplace on Kiran Shankar Roy Road in the Metro. On Monday, I opted for a comfortable Metro ride to the office instead of sweating it out on the bus,” said Kunal Shaw, a share broker.