Kolkata: Since the closure of the Blue Line section at the Kavi Subhash station on July 28, the daily ridership of the Orange Line, which shares the terminal station at New Garia, has halved, sources said.
The viability of the Orange Line's truncated 5.4km segment largely depended on its interface with the Blue Line at Kavi Subhash, which also has an interface with the Green Line (East-West Metro) at Esplanade. In the absence of the Blue Line, several passengers have stopped using the Orange Line. Before the shutdown, around 3,000 passengers travelled daily on the New Garia-Ruby corridor. The interface at Kavi Subhash enabled commuters to travel across Dakshineswar-New Garia (Blue Line) to Ruby (Orange Line) on a single token. They could also travel across East-West Metro or the Green Line's Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section via the Esplanade interchange, to Kavi Subhash (Blue Line) and onward to destinations on EM Bypass via the Orange Line.
"After July 28, the Kavi Subhash interchange became non-functional. Barely 1,500 passengers are using the Orange Line daily now," a source said. Orange Line ticket sales at Kavi Subhash station have dropped from 1,000–1,100 to 500–600 daily, sources said.
"Metro Railway would earlier earn Rs 1 lakh from selling Blue Line tickets at Kavi Subhash station. For the Orange Line, the average daily ticket sales were between Rs 20,000 and Rs 22,000. Now, the average revenue from the Orange Line's ticket sales at Kavi Subhash has reduced to around Rs 10,000," a source said.
The Orange Line (New Garia or Kavi Subhash)-Ruby (Hemanta Mukhopadhyay), will eventually span 30 km, along EM Bypass, Salt Lake Bypass, New Town, and VIP Road, terminating at the airport (Jai Hind Metro station). The 5.4km stretch was commissioned with 48 services in Mar 2024, running from 9 am to 4.40 pm. In Aug last year, services increased to 74. Operating duration extended to 12 hours, with the first and last trains departing at 8 am and 8 pm from both ends (Kavi Subhash and Ruby). Trains are available at 20-minute intervals as the superior signalling system or communication-based train control (CBTC) awaits the final safety approval. "Only five-day services are available. Still, around 3,000 people travelled on the Orange Line daily because they could avail of the Kavi Subhash and the Esplanade interchanges and zip across three corridors. The network has gone haywire now and the Orange Line is badly hit," an official said.