Kolkata Metro carried 61.5 lakh passengers between Panchami and Dashami during this year’s Puja period, including a record 12 lakh passengers on Sasthi, according to Metro Railway. The daily count on Sasthi was described by a Metro Railway spokesperson as the highest-ever passenger total recorded by the system.
The network handled 15 lakh more passengers than during last year’s Puja, underlining the scale of public transport demand during Kolkata’s biggest festival period. The figures cover travel from Panchami through Dashami, when movement across the city increases sharply around major puja venues, commercial areas and transport interchanges.
Dum Dum recorded the highest cumulative footfall during the period, with nearly 5 lakh passengers using the station. Kalighat ranked second with more than 4.8 lakh passengers, while Sealdah recorded 4.2 lakh. The numbers place the three stations among the busiest points in the Metro network during the festival.
Metro Railway said crowd management was a major operational challenge during Puja. A Metro Railway official said detailed plans were prepared and various measures were taken to manage passenger movement. Instructions were issued to assign responsibilities to every officer and staff member deployed for Puja duty.
The passenger surge was accompanied by a brief service disruption on Ashtami evening. A technical glitch at Mahanayak Uttam Kumar station affected operations, with truncated services running between Maidan and Dakshineswar from 5.31 pm to 6.23 pm. The report did not specify the nature of the technical fault or the number of passengers affected.
Senior Metro officials also monitored operations at stations during the festival. Sources said Metro Railway general manager Prem Sagar Gupta and other senior officials travelled by Metro and visited different stations to oversee crowd management and service arrangements.
The record passenger count highlights the role of Kolkata Metro in carrying large festival crowds across the city, while the station-level figures show how demand concentrated at key interchange points and pilgrimage-linked destinations. Metro Railway’s next operational priority will be to maintain service reliability and crowd-control arrangements during future high-demand periods.
