KOLKATA (Metro Rail & Steel): Kolkata Metro, India’s pioneering metro railway network, introduces a special token adorned with the ‘Chandrayaan-3’ logo, celebrating the nation’s triumphant soft landing on the lunar surface in a distinctive way. Unveiled on October 10, just ahead of the fervent Durga Puja celebrations, this token marks a significant addition to the metro’s offerings and has garnered immense interest among commuters.
Saumitra Biswas, the Principal Chief Operations Manager at Metro Railway, unveiled the design of this new ‘Chandrayaan-3’ token at the Metro Rail Bhavan, aiming to commemorate the country’s historic achievement in lunar exploration. Available across all three corridors—Blue Line, Green Line, and Purple Line—of Kolkata’s rapid transit system, passengers can easily purchase these tokens from the booking counters along these routes. The Kolkata Metro aims to sell approximately one lakh of these tokens, expecting a positive response from commuters in celebrating the success of ‘Chandrayaan-3’.
During the recent Durga Puja festivities, the Metro Railway witnessed a substantial surge in smart token sales. From Chaturthi to Dashami, commuters purchased a staggering 28,55,325 Smart Tokens, indicating an increase of 2,47,536 tokens (or 9.49%) compared to the previous year’s sales during the same period. Notably, the highest number of tokens were sold at Kalighat (2,38,165), closely followed by Dumdum (2,36,630), and Shovabazar – Sutanuti (1,73,550) stations, reflecting the enthusiasm of commuters during the festival days.
Furthermore, Kolkata Metro has experienced a rise in non-fare revenue earnings through various avenues such as branding of litter bins at stations, internal and external advertisement displays within metro rakes, hoardings in open spaces, installation of health check-up kiosks at different stations, and handling chain branding. From April 1 to October 31, the nation’s inaugural metro system amassed Rs 26.05 crores as Non-Fare Revenue (NFR).
