Title - Suicide spoils Metro 'record'

KOLKATA: Metro Railway failed to make it a perfect April so far as prevention of suicides is concerned. After four rescues, an unidentified man - in his early 60s - ruined Metro's record on the last day of the month by committing suicide at the Girish Park station on Monday evening. Services between Dum Dum and Maidan stations were disrupted for over an hour. This was the 238th attempt in the Metro network till date. While 117 people have been saved, the remaining died on the spot."The man jumped from the edge of the platform at 5.03pm, when a Dum Dum-bound train was entering the station. The motorman applied emergency brakes and did his best to control the train but the impact was too severe. The man collapsed on the track bed. We evacuated commuters, reversed the rake and switched off power to the third line before pulling him out. He had died by then," an official said.According to officials, the man may not have died had he jumped from the middle of the platform. Motormen reduce speed as the trains enter the platforms and get enough time to apply emergency brakes before the impact takes place. Three of the people saved in April received knocks on their heads but survived as the trains had slowed down sufficiently."Commuters suffered due to the disruption. We ran truncated services between Maidan and Kavi Subhas till 6.10pm when normal services were finally restored," the official added.

Keeping in mind the large number of suicide attempts that take place, certain restrictions have been imposed on Metro motormen even after the induction of automatic signals. Officials, however, claimed that they have managed to get over the glitches involved with new signals. The trouble was due to wires getting loose, they said.

Metro will run trains as per Saturday schedule on Tuesday, it being the May Day.Wednesday being May Day, Metro will run services on Saturday schedule.