Authorities of Bangalore Metropolitan Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) have confirmed that the smart card, proposed to be introduced by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) this year, will be accepted by Namma Metro as well.
Pradeep Singh Kharola, Managing Director, BMRCL, told The Hindu that the common card, based on open source software, could be used by one additional agency.
All subsequent transport associations, such as taxis and autorickshaws, would have to use only open source software to get integrated into the BMTC smart card, he said.
Kumar Pushkar, Director (IT), BMTC, said that BMRCL was in talks with Samsung to integrate the Namma Metro ticket system with the BMTC card on open standards software as most of the process was yet to operationalise.
He said that Axis Bank, the clearing house for transactions made on the BMTC smart card, would transfer money to BMTC, Namma Metro, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation and retail outlets on a daily basis. All payments are according to National Payments Corporation of India norms.
Mr. Pushkar said that BMTC does not pay for the technology. The corporation gets Rs. 1.2 crore from Axis Bank annually as fixed royalty for five years.
Further, it gets 0.3 per cent of the transaction cost each time debit and credit cards are used, he said.
Jairam Sridharan, president, Consumer Lending and Payments, Axis Bank, said initially the focus was on electronic ticketing with other features added over a period of time. As the card was “safe, multi-purpose, with open loop technology”, more functionalities could be added.
Six different companies, including at least two Bangalore-based ones, were developing the technology and the cards were likely to be manufactured in India, he said.
