Poor crowd response to Commonwealth Express

Kolkata: The Commonwealth Express may have chugged into the city of Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, but the crowd response to witness the train was very poor.

"In Allahabad, an overwhelming 27,392 people visited the informative, well-exhibited train that has CWG 2010 and information technology as its themes but in Kolkata Railway station at Chitpur only 1,020 people have turned up till 5 pm after it was opened at 11 am today," a member of the feedback team of the Commonwealth Express said. "Didi ke sehar se yeh ummid nahin thi... (We are really surprised to see such a low response from Mamata Banerjee`s city," the feedback team member said."In a small city like Patiala, we had more than thousand turnout, while Patna had more than 25000 visitors on one day. It seems there has been low publicity here. They (Railway Ministry) should have organised it properly," he said. When contacted the promotional in-charge (ICT) of the Commonwealth Express train, Deepak Sharma, said the turnout has been low. "The station location -- in the remote Chitpur -- maybe a reason," Sharma told reporters."However, we are expecting more crowd tomorrow, the second and last day of the stop in Kolkata." Chief PRO of the Eastern Railways, Samir Goswami said, "This has been a joint initiative by two Ministries -- Railways and Communications. This was scheduled at Chitpur only.” "Maybe, next time, we will ask for your suggestions," he quipped. PTI