From now on, the Delhi Metro commuters will be at their ease to recharge their smart card from the comfort of their homes or offices. To avoid long queues at the Metro stations, the Delhi Metro has introduced online recharge facility for smart card users. The new system will facilitate recharge of cards online using debit or credit cards. This facility, however, cannot be used through Net banking.
According to DMRC, the Metro commuters can top up their smart cards through www.delhimetrorail.com and www.dmrcsmartcard.com. After completing the top up process, the commuters will be able to check if their recharge was successful via Ticket Reader-cum-Add Value machines. However, after three months, the commuters would not be required to validate their cards through these machines as the system would be made automatic.
The first Ticket Reader-cum-Add Value machine was inaugurated on Thursday at the Barakhamba Road Metro station by DMRC Managing Director Mangu Singh.
“Thirty-nine such touch-screen machines have been installed at 13 Metro stations of the Delhi Metro network. About a hundred such machines will be installed at other stations in the coming month,” Singh said.
The stations where the facility has been introduced include — Dilshad Garden, Shahadara, Welcome, Seelampur, Shastri Park, Pragati Maidan, Karkardooma, Nirman Vihar, laxmi Nagar, Barakhamba Road, RK Ashram Marg, Jhandewalan and Rajendra Place.
The machines will also provide commuters with information about balance in the smart card, last recharge details and the last five entry-exit transactions.
At present, about 70 per cent of Metro commuters use smart cards and about 17,000 smart cards are sold every day from various stations of the network. Metro officials said the number of card users would further go up with the new facility in place. Currently, one crore Metro cards have been issued and are in circulation. DMRC has partnered with ICICI Bank for the launch of this online automated fare collection process and the bank has integrated its payment gateway with the two websites for recharging smart cards through the internet.