Mamata keeps word: Ladies Special rolls out today,Metro link on track

“This is a sort of Puja gift to the people of Bengal. There will be four stations. Due to some problems,we have not finished work on the fifth station. The train will travel till Garia,” Banerjee said at her Kalighat residence.

“We have named the stations after renowned personalities,including freedom fighters. We will also inaugurate the ‘Ladies Special’ on Sunday. The non-stop trains will also be operational by August. It will have fares less than the Rajdhani Express but will be faster,” she added.

Sources said the 8.7-km extension project sanctioned during Banerjee’s earlier stint as railway minister in the NDA government in 1999-2000,had failed to meet several deadlines due to land acquisition problem near Garia.

The Tollygunge station will be named after Uttam Kumar,Bengali matinee idol; the Kudghat station will be named Netaji Subhas station; the station near Bansdroni will be named after freedom fighter Saheed Surya Sen while the Naktala station will be named Gitanjali and the Garia station will be named Kabi Nazrul. The penultimate station,once ready,will be named Saheed Khudiram station.

Meanwhile,Eastern Railway will run the first “Ladies Special” in the state from Howrah station on Sunday afternoon. An ER spokesperson said the EMU train will run from Monday to Saturday between Howrah and Bandel. During morning,it will start from Bandel station for Howrah and in late evening it will leave from Howrah for Bandel.

“Ladies Special” train was first introduced in Mumbai by the Western Railway in 1992. As it comes as a welcome relief for women passengers during rush hours,Banerjee proposed to introduce such services in Delhi,Kolkata and Chennai in her railway budget.

“Ladies Special” EMU services will be inaugurated by the railway minister in the presence of other Union ministers of state from Bengal at 3.30 pm on Sunday. On the same day,ER will start running 12-coach EMU services 19 times a day,added the spokesperson.