Kolkata Metro is all set to go paperless from July 2009 with a six-month delay from the scheduled date of February 2009.

Metro Railway had introduced smart cards in January 2006 by incurring a cost of about Rs 3.5 crore to make regular travel more convenient.

For some passengers it has become a source of harassment, thanks to the shortage of gates with smart card readers.

Since several station exits lack gates with smart card readers, passengers, many of them old and physically challenged, are forced to descend to the platform and then climb up to the other exits.

“We have received several complaints from passengers due to inadequacy of smart card gates,” admits PG Mandal, Metro Railway spokesperson.

“We are also planning to do away with the obsolete magnetic tickets,” he added.

Currently, for the 210 entry and exit points at 17 stations, only 77 are smart card-enabled.

Even very busy stations like Esplanade, Central and Belgachia do not have smart card-enabled gates at all points.

It took two years to gauge the success of the smart card system in spite of the fact that in less than six months, the Metro Rail authorities had sold 60,000 smart cards and had to procure another one-lakh cards to meet the demand.

Of the one-lakh cards, daily commuters have already lapped up 45,000.

Last year, the contract for overhauling the entire ticket system was given to Chris Limited for Rs 42 crore.

But sources in the department revealed that in spite the deadline being February 1, 2009, the progress of the work still remains slow.

The company is yet to take the requisite steps to upgrade the ticket system, an official said.

“The Chris Limited has got the contract to make the entire system smart card-enabled. But they have not even floated the tenders yet. The process will surely be delayed by six months or so,” says a Metro official.