The Metro Ride Kolkata app will soon be available in both Hindi and English. As for now a total of 2,48,470 users have already downloaded the app.
Kolkata Metro is planning to introduce QR code-based ticket booking on its North-South line by the end of this year. The city’s metro rail corporation is updating the hardware of existing Automated Fare Collection and Passenger Control (AFC-PC) gates at stations on the network. The transport body is also providing QR scanners to stations along the North-South metro corridor, as reported by The Statesman. The QR ticket booking is already in place in the city’s Green Line. To avail the facility, commuters have to download the Metro Ride Kolkata app from Google Play Store.
After signing up on the Metro Ride Kolkata app, users have to log in and enter their source and destination stations. The next step in the process is to make the online payment for the ticket. After that, a QR code will get generated, which has to be produced at the Metro station gate. The scanners in the gate will read the code and allow the user to enter the station easily.
The Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation has also introduced smart cards and tokens on its East-West corridor.
Apart from this, the Kolkata Metro Railway is constructing base walls around a shaft in Bowbazar. The project is part of the East-West Metro project, which once fully operational, will link Salt Lake Sector V and Howrah Maidan.
About two metres of the construction has been completed. The sidewalls and the roof are yet to be built. After their construction, the shaft will be closed to retrieve the twin tunnel boring machine. This is required to bring trains from Sealdah via the Sector V-bound tunnel, for trial runs between Esplanade and Howrah Maidan. The stretch between Esplanade and Howrah Maidan is nearing completion and aims for commercial runs by the year-end.
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“The walls will scale up to around nine metres. Once the walls are constructed, we will start building the roof. There are some bracings which had been installed as supporting structures in May 2022, which will also have to be removed,” an engineer of the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation, told the Telegraph.
According to metro officials, a trial run of “six to seven months” is needed to prepare for commercial runs. After the trials give satisfactory results, the carrier will be inspected by the commissioner of railway safety. The commissioner’s clearance is mandatory for commercial runs.
