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I am here again to key in a few words on the Metro railway service in Kolkata. The metro service has indeed improved a lot since the bedlam broke loose situation we had to encounter shortly after the extension of the line. The crowd is still very much there, but the service is better.

However, if the metro railway authority wishes to earn some revenue, they must watch their steps. At present, most of the turnstile gates where we punch our tickets are defunct. Which means, on their way out from the metro station, passengers are not being asked to punch in their tickets; at least two of the gates are perpetually kept open - partly to control crowd pressure and partly to save themselves the labor of mending the gates. This situation has trigered a new type of problem. As we all know, the metro fare increase by Rs2/- for every zone. Zone 1 ticket costs Rs4/-, zone 2 costs Rs6/- and so on. Due to this unique situation of gates, the smart alecks who populate the streets of Kolkata in hoardes, are purchasing a Rs4/- ticket instead of a Rs8/- or may be Rs12/- ticket that they are actually supposed to purchase. And they can do this because they don’t have to punch in the ticket at all.

I am not sure if the Mtero railway authorities are even aware of this, but if they are, I believe they have to look into it.