No Metro rail services in Kolkata till March 31
Kolkata Metro is one of the lifelines of the city carrying around 630,000 passengers every day.
The Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Ltd said on Sunday it will close its services till March 31 as a precautionary measure to prevent any outbreak of Covid-19 even as the Indian Railways decided it will not operate any of its passenger trains across the country till the end of this month.
“There will be no Metro services from tomorrow (Monday) till 24 hours (midnight) of 31st March, 2020,” Kolkata Metro tweeted.
Kolkata Metro is one of the lifelines of the city carrying around 630,000 passengers every day. The footfall, however, went down after people started staying indoors and avoided public transport.
On March 16, the number of Metro passengers dropped to around 520,000.
At least four positive cases of coronavirus have been reported from West Bengal so far. Nearly 21,000 citizens have been kept under hospital and home surveillance in the state.
The West Bengal government had requested the ministry of railways to stop all trains from entering the state till March 31 to shield the state from any potential carriers of Covid-19 from outside.
The state also put a ban on interstate bus movement to contain the outbreak of the disease.
The number of Covid-19 patients soared to 341 and two more people who had contracted the infection died in Maharashtra and Bihar.
