Kolkata, Sep 19 (IANS): To mitigate commuters' inconvenience due to bus strike Thursday, the Kolkata Metro Railway pressed into service eight additional trains to meet the commuter rush, a release said.

"Keeping in view difficulties of people due to bus strike in the city, Metro Railway is running eight more special trains today (Thursday) to cope with the passenger rush," a statement said.

On a normal day, Metro runs 270 trains.

"The special eight trains are in addition to normal services," said the release.

Stretching across 25.135 km on the city's busy north-south axis from Dumdum to Kavi Subhash, the Kolkata Metro ferries around 6.5 lakh commuters on weekdays and nearly four lakh passengers on weekends.

Commuters faced a hard time as a section of bus operators launched a two-day strike all over the state to press for a hike in fares.

After an official assurance, the operators ended the agitation in the evening. The strike was called off after Transport Minister Madan Mitra promised the operators their demands would be looked into. Buses will be back on the roads Friday morning.

Earlier, over 50 lakh commuters faced lengthy queues as fewer buses plied.

"There are less buses but still a good number are plying... however, it is not sufficient... we are standing for a long time in queues," said a commuter.