"Thought we had built Bimanbandar station keeping in mind the rise in passengers' demand coming by flights, we will now have to think about other ways as the travellers don't opt for this facility," Chief Personal Relation Manager (Eastern Railway) Dipak Jha said.
Railway authorities have recently spent Rs 1.2 lakh for a survey to study about how this route commencing from Sealdah to Dum Dum Cantonment in North 24 Parganas can be attached with the Metro Railway.
"The Metro Railway is conducting the survey and after their submitting the report, we will decide to implement the project or not," Jha said.
Pointing out the ground reality, the Joint Secretary of Railway Jatri Samity, Swapan Bharati said: "there are only two trains in a day- the first one comes at 7.20 am in the morning and the second one at 9.30 pm. But the first flight reaches the N S C Bose International Airport at 7.20 am, the very time of the train's arrival."
"After that it takes another 20 minutes for the check out and naturally an air passenger cannot board the train. People could have availed the train had the authorities been careful in fixing the time schedule," Bharati said.