“Each station is required to have a first-aid box, a wheelchair, stretchers and a few other equipment,” said Metro Public Relation Officer P Dutta.

Take the first-aid box first. All the 17 stations have a first aid box, but the staff is unaware about its contents. Metro employees at the Maidan station say that the box is inspected only once in 3 to 4 months while staff at the Kalighat station claims that it is checked every month.

“There are some medicines, antiseptics and bandages. The box is hardly used,” say officials at the Maidan station.

Many stations such as Maidan, Park Street and Kalighat do not have a wheel chair, while stretchers and oxygen cylinders lie in a pile of dust.

The stretchers at the Maidan station are locked in the storeroom and none of the staff know where the keys are.

The employees admitted that last week when an elderly woman was suddenly taken ill at the station, it took them over 15 minutes to locate a stretcher.

Further, staff of many stations are not trained to use oxygen cylinders and mask. Another mandatory item is the POMKA (Portable Medical Kit for Accident). No stationmaster has any clue about its contents.

“It probably contains some injections and medicines and maybe saline bottles,” said the stationmaster at Park Street.

Station masters can open the POMKA only in the presence of the senior DMO (Divisional Medical Officer), who is usually available at the Metro Hospital, Tollygunj — which defeats the whole purpose of keeping the kit, since it is of no immediate use for an accident victim.

“We are not authorised to open the kit. If a patient needs any item from it, we first inform the DMO and treatment can be given to a patient only when the DMO reaches here,” says A K Sarkar, Park Street station manager.