The Dakshineswar-Goria and East-West Metro passenger services resumed in Kolkata after the Covid-19 travel restrictions were slowly lifted. For the convenience of passengers, the officials have decided to reintroduce tokens from November 25. Now instead of metro tickets, tokens will be used to commute in the metro.
In the meantime, the Metrorail officials are taking steps to control the theft of tokens by passengers. Officials stated that announcements will be made at every station to make passengers aware of the bad habit of stealing tokens. Since Metro Ticketing Area Gate is ETC, the token has to be first punched in and the gate will be opened only after dropping the token in ETC.
According to statistics, of the 4800 tokens that were issued, about 1,080 were stolen in the first six days of the East-West Metro service. The tokens that were stolen were worth only Rs 5 but it costs nearly Rs 20,000 to manufacture them. As a result, the Kolkata metro suffered a loss of Rs 21,600 in just one day.
The reason behind the theft cited by the Metrorail officials is that during peak time owing to crowd pressure the electronic gate, general staff gate, or emergency gates are often left open by the staff. So, many passengers leave the station using the staff gate instead of exit gates.
Speaking on the issue, Metrorail officials said that the entire thing lacks surveillance at the stations. And after the token service is resumed, there will be strict surveillance on tokens at every metro station and persistent announcements will be made so that nobody steals tokens and leaves the station premises through any other gate.
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