Sangbad Kolkata: Three more advanced technology smart gates have been installed at the city’s busiest Esplanade metro station. These gates have the facility of QR code based ticket scanning. Apart from this, travel can also be done through token, smart card. The fancy name of this advanced technology smart gate is Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) Gate.
Note that new technology AFC gates have been installed at every station of the new metro routes in the city. QR code based paper tickets have already been introduced on the Sealdah-Sector Five route of the East-West Metro Corridor. Earlier there were 25 smart gates at Esplanade metro station. Now three new smart gates have been installed. As a result, the number of smart gates in Esplanade stands at 28 at the moment. Out of these 28, passengers can use tickets with QR codes at 5 gates. Which is called smart gate based on AFC technology. Also, there are benefits of using tokens and smart cards. One of the features of AFC gate is that maximum number of passengers can travel in less time. 45 passengers per minute can enter and exit through this AFC gate. Only tokens and smart cards can be used through the remaining 23 smart gates.
On March 6, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Esplanade-Howrah Maidan route on Wednesday. Passenger services were then launched on March 15. At present Esplanade is the only Interchanging Metro station in the city. As a result, passengers on the Kabi Subhash-Dakshineshwar route are getting an opportunity to alight at the Esplanade and travel to the New Metro Corridor. Naturally, commuters are under pressure at the city’s only Interchanging Esplanade Metro Station.
Three new smart gates installed at Esplanade metro station
