A breakdown in the point of sale (PoS) systems in many metro stations over the past two days has made it impossible for commuters to swipe their credit and debit cards or recharge their smartcards.

The reason: BMRCL sources revealed, is the location of the Federal Bank’s data centre in flood-ravaged Kerala. The Federal Bank has provided the PoS facilities at the metro stations.

“Initial information suggests that the data centre has suffered damages in the flood,” said a BMRCL source. “Debit cards can be used at stations where the PoS has been provided by ICICI.”

Commuters who found no use for their cards complained to the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation on social media. Those without cash had to waste time in locating an ATM facility. Those located inside the metro stations are not operational.

BMRCL chief public relations officer U A Vasanth Rao confirmed that the PoS machines were not working, but said payments for recharging smartcards or for the tokens were made in cash.

10 days to fix issue

“As informed by the bank, it may take a week or 10 days to fix the problem. Credit/debit cards account for only about 12% of top-up payments and the rest comes by cash. We collect about a crore per day and only Rs 12 to Rs 13 lakh comes through cards,” he said.

DH tried reaching the authorities at the Federal Bank to learn about the damage to the data centre and to its communication apparatus but did not receive any reply from them.