Significant rise in number of Delhi Metro smart card users: DMRC

NEW DELHI: There has been a significant rise in the percentage of Delhi Metro commuters who use smart cards since January vis-a-vis the figures during pre-covid time, the DMRC said on Sunday. Since January 2022, around 78 per cent of the metro commuters are using smart cards for travel on regular basis up from around 70 per cent in the pre-covid days, it said in a statement.

COVID-19 pandemic outbreak was reported in Delhi in early March 2020 and initially token services were also suspended.

“It is noteworthy that the year 2020 also recorded 100 per cent usage of smart cards for 3-4 months when the metro services were resumed after 169-day complete shutdown in September 2020 and sale of tokens were strictly not allowed as a precautionary measure,” the DMRC statement said.

Usage of smart card among Delhi Metro commuters for their daily travel has witnessed a significant surge in the year 2022 so far, it said.

In 2002, Delhi Metro became the first Metro rail in the world to introduce Contactless Smart Tokens and Contactless Smart Cards in place of paper tickets to travel in the Metro.

Earlier, the smart cards had to be procured from foreign vendors but now they are completely manufactured in India as a major initiative towards government’s ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ mission., officials said.

Currently, about 2.5 crore metro smart cards are in circulation, they said. On an average, about 10-12 thousand metro smart cards are being sold each day from the metro stations and DMRC is also providing dedicated exit gates for smart card users only at most of its stations.

In addition, a flat 10 per cent discount is provided on each journey and additional 10 per cent discount is also provided if the journey is performed by entering in the metro system during defined off-peak hours, the statement said. DMRC had recently launched various initiatives to facilitate easy top up of smart cards to avoid queues and save time at stations.

This includes the option of Smart Card top-up through TVMS, launch of metro combo cards with various banks, credit or debit card transaction facility at stations, net banking using dmrcsmartcard.com and mobile wallets among others, it added. “In addition, initiatives such as 1-day tourist card for unlimited travel in a day (worth Rs 200 including Rs 50 refundable security deposit), three-day tourist card for unlimited travel for three days (worth Rs 500 including Rs 50 as refundable security deposit) are also available for the commuters,” it said.

DMRC intends to increase this figure substantially to a level similar to that of the other metro systems like those in Singapore and Hong Kong where almost 100 per cent of metro users are relying on smart cards for their smooth and comfortable daily journey. it said.