Namma Metro smart card's minimum balance hiked to Rs 50

The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has hiked the minimum balance to be maintained on the smart card.

The BMRCL on Wednesday afternoon announced that the minimum balance commuters need to maintain on their smart card is Rs 50 instead of Rs 8. This announcement was made at Vidhana Soudha and MG Road station, also stating that this comes into immediate effect.

BMRCL officials said that this decision has been taken for the convenience of commuters.

“We started getting many cases on a daily basis where commuters would travel long distances and at the time of exiting would realise that they have no minimum balance. They would get into verbal battles with staffers and even hold up the queues. So it has been decided that the barricades at the entry point will open only when there is a minimum balance of Rs 50 on smart card,” said a BMRCL official.

The official added: “We had already started the process of recharging only Rs 50 when people would approach us with low balance at the time of exit. This decision is only a follow out of that.”

While some commuters have accepted this, some others opine otherwise. “What will happen when we have no cash in hand to recharge. So BMRCL should reduce the amount from Rs 50,” said Kushalappa, a commuter at Vidhana Soudha Metro station, on hearing the announcement.