West Bengal government introduces e-pass for Kolkata metro to regulate crowd

The Kolkata metro service will start on September 14 for the public. From now on, e-pass system will be introduced in Kolkata metro. According to the state transport department, the 'booking' has to be completed at least 12 hours before receiving the e-pass of metro. Initially, e-passes can be obtained through a specific link. By clicking on that link, the passenger has to enter his name, identity, time of journey and details of the station of boarding and destination.

The e-pass system will be introduced in Kolkata metro. The decision was finalized at the second round of state administration meetings with Metro authorities on Friday (September 4). Metro services will resume on September 14. According to the state transport department, the 'booking' has to be completed at least 12 hours before receiving an e-pass.
 

Initially, e-passes can be obtained through a specific link. By clicking on the link, the passenger will need to enter name, identity, time of journey and details of the station of boarding and destination.
 

The e-pass will be sent to the passenger's mobile number in the form of a QR code. By looking at the colour of the code, the guards at the entrance of the metro will understand whether the passenger has valid permission to travel on the specific metro. The colour QR code system will not be disclosed to public. Entrance guards will only be notified before the specified 'slot' starts.
 

The issuing of e-passes to a certain number of passengers to comply with social distancing rules will be determined through an 'algorithm' model. Metro's own website, app, and the state transport department's 'Pathidisha' app will be used to deliver the link to passengers. Currently, this system is being introduced in the North-South metro of Kolkata. The East-West side metro is not scheduled to open.

According to sources, Metro general manager Manoj Joshi will personally visit the station on September 7 and 9. After that, the trial run of Metro may start on September 13. The state government has requested to run a special metro on the day of the NEET exam.

Presently, the metro authorities want to start the service with 400 passengers per rack. The metro authorities have planned to run a total of 110 metros between 8 am and 8 pm.

 In this new system of Metro, the whole procedure will be dependent on smartphones. People who do not have a smartphone may face difficulty in boarding a metro. Metro authorities, however, claim that the service will be normalized step by step after watching the situation.