In a major relief to the citizens planning shopping or pandal hopping during Durga Puja, the Kolkata Metro Railway today launched a mobile-based integrated QR code ticketing system in the Blue Line.

Citizens would be able to plan their day in advance as the integrated tickets have a validity of 12 hours.

The city Metro witnesses mammoth footfall during Durga Puja. Long queues and overcrowded ticket counters make the handling of crowds during the Puja days a challenging task. Not only during the main festival days, but the crowd in the city Metro network starts swelling even before, with citizens thronging the shopping hotspots. According to the general manager of Kolkata Metro Railway, P U K Reddy, the authorities are aiming to minimize the crowd of commuters at ticket counters. The mobile-based integrated QR code ticketing system is expected to bring convenience to the citizens by avoiding the queues in front of crowded ticket counters.

Notably, the ticketing system of the city Metro has undergone a technological change in the recent past. As elaborated by the general manager, the Metro railway authorities were targeting to gradually minimize the issuance of tokens and encourage QR code-based tickets. With this aim, the authorities introduced a paper based QR code ticketing system. “Paper, as we know, is not green, so we tried to encourage mobile ticketing systems. The best thing would be that people purchase smart cards. But those unwilling to do so, can now buy it through their mobile from anywhere without having to wait at ticket counters,” said Mr Reddy.

The ticketing system launched today has been introduced on a trial basis. For now, the facility is for a single commuter. The Metro authorities are mulling over plans to make improvements and launch the facility in which multiple passengers would be able to travel in trains using the system.

As informed by the general manager, the authorities are also considering deploying their staff at Puja pandals with devices to enable commuters purchase tickets on-the-spot without having to visit the ticket counters at stations physically.