While roaming around Kolkata, we heavily used Metro. It's probably one of the best way to commute in some parts of the city. Metro in Kolkata doesn't cover the whole city but it definitely one of the fastest way to reach places connected through metro line. Apart from being fast way to commute, it has it's own charm. As mentioned in the title, Kolkata got first metro in India and hence very different from what we have in Delhi.
Most of the metro stations in Kolkata are under ground and only some part of Kolkata is connected through Metro. We took our first metro from Elgin to M G Road, when we were going to Jorashanko Thakurbari.
And we learned from our mistake that in Kolkata, always use Metro whenever you can. Traffic is bad in Kolkata. A Metro journey of 15 minutes can take 2 hr by road.
Every compartment of Kolkata metro has separate section for ladies and very well managed. It's equally crowded as you see in Delhi, but I would say that people have more patience as compared to folks we have in capital city of India. And it's pretty cheap as compared to Delhi Metro.