Since its inception in 2010, Bengaluru’s Namma Metro has been able to shell out 14 lakh smart-cards to commuters. Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) officials have informed that the demand for smart-cards has been steeply rising consistently since the metro services began operations.
Namma Metro’s average ridership now stands at 3.9 lakh. The Hindu quoted A S Shankar, BMRCL’s Executive Director for Operations and Maintenance as saying, “Around 70 per cent of commuters using Namma Metro are smart card holders. While once we sold 1,000-odd cards a day, it’s now 1,500 to 1,700, and on some days, it’s 2,000.”
The advantage of possessing these cards is that the commuter gets a discount of 15 per cent, and he/she gets to avoid standing in long queues to purchase tokens for every single journey. There has been a growing demand to amalgamate BMRCL’s card and BMTC’s bus passes as a single common mobility smart-card so that commuters can use the same card for journey is both, buses and metro.
Authorities have informed that the introduction of six-coach trains has been very helpful in clearing the peak-hour rush at stations. Throughout the day, four rounds of the trains are operated so that the the city’s population gets requisite service at the stations.