78% Commuters Using Smart Cards Says DMRC

New Delhi, May 15: More commuters are moving away from token system and switching to usage, the Delhi Metro has said on Sunday. Since January 2022 DMRC registered a significant increase in its daily commuters with 78 percent of people using Smart Cards for Metro travel on regular basis. The metro smart card utilisation stood at 70 percent in the pre-Covid days.

In the year 2020, DMRC recorded 100 percent usage of Smart Cards for 3-4 months when the Metro Services were resumed after 169-days' complete shutdown in September 2020, and sale of tokens were strictly not allowed as a precautionary measure.

"In 2002, Delhi Metro became the first Metro rail in the world to introduce Contact less Smart Tokens (CST) and Contact less Smart Cards (CSC) in place of paper tickets to travel in the Metro. Earlier, these smart cards had to be procured from foreign vendors but now these are completely manufactured in India as a major initiative towards Government of India's 'AatmNirbhar Bharat' mission. Currently, about 2.5 crore Metro smart cards are in circulation," DMRC said in its official statement.

On an average, about 10 to 12 thousand Metro Smart cards are being sold each day from the Metro stations. In addition, the corporation has continued with its 10 percent discount provision to its smart card users during off-peak hours.

"In addition, initiatives such as 1-day tourist card for unlimited travel in a day (worth ₹200/- (Including ₹50/- of refundable security deposit), 3-Day Tourist Card for unlimited travel for 3 days (worth ₹500/- (Including ₹50/- of refundable security deposit) are also available for the commuters," the announcement states.

DMRC has said it intends to increase this figure to a level similar to that of the other Metro systems like Singapore and Hong Kong where almost 100 percent of Metro users are relying on Smart Cards for daily journey.