Metro Rail authorities concerned at lost tokens

In spite of all the efforts, the tendency of losing tokens of Metro Rail doesn’t seem to be coming down at all, which has become a major matter of concern for authorities of Metro Rail.

Sources at the Metro Rail said that during the financial year 2018-19, owing to loss of tokens there has been a loss of Rs 2.81 lakh which means at an average loss has been over Rs 23,000 per month.

Metro officials said that normally during the Durga Puja many new commuters take a Metro Rail ride. The token system was on during that time and during that time there was a lot of cases of lost tokens. At other times too there were many such instances which came to the notice of Metro authorities.

The cost of each tokens at present is Rs 18. A senior Metro official said that most tokens were lost during an emergency situation at the Metro Rail. Elaborating it the official said that in case of an emergency the flap gates are kept open to let commuters leave in a hurry. A token collecting box is kept at the exit gate but it has been observed that most passengers dont return the tokens in that case.

Officials also said that loss of tokens had a direct relationship with unfair practice among some passengers. “In many cases among people travelling in groups while one person punches the token, another who had got a token for a shorter distance also gets through the flap gate. We are increasing vigilance to nab such offenders,” the official said.

It was found out that in 2018-19, as many as 3,426 such cases were identified where people tried to take a longer ride than the token they had purchased for. An amount of Rs 8,77,815 had been recovered from them in terms of penalty. In April 2019, there were 254 such cases which yielded Rs 65,485 as penalty.

Metro Rail officials said that at present the number of such cases had come down owing to the use of more Smart Cards for Metro commuters and said that with increased number of smart card holders, there will be fewer cases of lost Metro Rail tokens.

 

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