With the discontinuation of tokens in the Delhi Metro as part of precautionary measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has sold around 8,500 smart cards per day between September 7 and 16.
Under Unlock 4 guidelines issued by the Centre, metro services got the nod to resume operations from September 7 after a five-month hiatus. The DMRC had said that tokens had been discontinued to curb chances of virus transmission and had made the use of smart cards mandatory.
The public transporter had also launched a new version of smart cards having an auto top-up feature, while existing smart card users can get the feature activated.
According to DMRC data, around 10,000 registrations have taken place on the Autope app, through which smart cards get recharged automatically at the Automatic Fare Collection gates.
DMRC officials said that 4,000 Autope cards have been issued so far. “The smart cards issued by Autope will offer auto top-up functionality whenever the value of the smart card goes below ₹100 and will automatically recharge the card with ₹200 at the AFC gate. Autope will auto-debit the value from the customer’s linked card or bank account,” officials said.
“This new measure will eliminate the need for queuing up at the metro stations to recharge smart cards. Even in the case of online recharges, the card needs to be presented to the Add Value Machines (AVM)s for the store value to get validated. Autope eliminates the AVM layer as well.”
