“The East-West corridor is also likely to be connected with the terminal,” said ER general manager N K Goel. While the proposal has received a nod from the railway board, ER is in the process of finalising a consultant.

Speaking at an interactive session after flagging off the Howrah-Chandanpur EMU locals, Goel said, the terminal will have the capacity of accommodating 10-15 platforms.

The number of footfalls in Howrah station is around 10 lakh per day. While ER carries 6.4 lakh commuters per day from Howrah station, it carries almost 13 lakh passengers per day from Sealdah.

As a part of the project to upgrade Howrah station to a global standard, the zonal railway is making a separate provision for the suburban passengers.

Meanwhile, ER has started augmenting the number of coaches in EMU locals from 9 to 12 in a few sections and plans to convert all the rakes in its system to 12-coach ones in next few years. The augmentation would increase the capacity of the EMU locals by at least 33 per cent.

The ministry has set ER an earning target of Rs 3609.07 crore for the current fiscal. While it is likely to earn Rs 1325 crore from Passenger traffic, originating freight traffic is likely to fetch Rs 2025 crore for the zonal railway.