Kolkata, Apr 8 (UNI) Metro Railway, Kolkata, the first underground railway service in India, has achieved a new milestone as it carried some 21.81 crore passengers in 2024-25.

The latest figure is 13.30 percent more than the previous year of 19.25 crore in 23/24 an official document said.

The mode of transport since its inception in 1984, is becoming more and more popular in every passing day for being the cheapest and quicker service than any other surface transport.

At present, Metro services are available on Blue Line, Green Line, Purple Line and Orange Line.Out of these, Blue Line (Dakshineswar to Kavi Subhash) of Metro Railway has carried 18.93 crore passengers in the recently concluded fiscal 2024-25 in comparison to 2023-24 passenger figure of 17.94 crores, this is 5.5 pc more.

On the other hand, Green Line-2 (Howrah Maidan to Esplanade) has carried 1.39 crore passengers in 2024-25 as Metro Railway has started to ply under the river Hooghly from March last year.

Green Line-1 (Sealdah to Salt Lake Sector V) has carried 1.41 crore passengers in 2024-25 in comparison to 2023-24 passenger figure of 1.22 crores, this is 15.57 pc more.About 1.76 lakh passengers travelled in the Purple Line (Joka to Majerhat) in the last fiscal in comparison to 2023-24 passenger figure of 1.34 lakh, this is 31.34 pc more and some 5.92 lakh passengers have travelled in the Orange Line (Kavi Subhash to Hemanta Mukhopadhyay) in the last fiscal, the document said.Meanwhile, Kolkata Metro added two more Dalian rakes MR-504 & MR- 512 to the service of the passengers recently.With this, five Dalian rakes are now plying on the Metro network.

Dalian rakes are wider doors which facilitate easy entry and exit and jerk-free ride. Besides, CCTV coverage inside the coach, modular and wider vestibules, enhanced seating capacity including provision of more seats for senior citizens and specially- abled are some of the unique features of these rakes.

UNI PC KK