Kolkata Metro’s new Tourist Smart Card is designed to make pandal-hopping during Durga Puja a seamless and hassle-free experience for both visitors and locals. The core benefit is unlimited travel on the entire Kolkata Metro network for a fixed period. This is a significant advantage during Durga Puja when people frequently travel between different parts of the city to visit numerous pandals.
During the Durga Puja rush, metro stations are incredibly crowded. The card eliminates the need to stand in long queues to buy tokens for every single journey, allowing you to simply tap and go. For those planning to visit multiple pandals a day, the unlimited-ride model can be more economical than buying individual tokens or topping up a regular smart card repeatedly.
By encouraging the use of these cards, metro officials aim to reduce the congestion at ticketing counters, which helps in the overall management of the huge festive crowd. The card is available in two variants to suit different travel plans, like a 3-day pass priced at INR 250 and a 5-day pass priced at INR 550.
Metro musings
You can purchase the Tourist Smart Card at the booking counters of any Kolkata Metro station. The validity period (3 or 5 days) begins from the very first time you use the card to enter a metro station. After the validity expires, the card can be recharged and used like a regular Metro Smart Card.
A refundable security deposit of INR 80 is included in the price of the card. While the card is a physical pass, the Kolkata Metro also encourages the use of its Aamar Kolkata Metro mobile app, which offers QRbased tickets and top-up facilities, further streamlining the travel process. One can visit famous pandals like Mudiali Club Durga Puja Pandal which is right next to the Rabindra Sarobar Metro Station, among many others that are accessible via the line.
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