JOIN USMetro commuters face a tough time recharging their smart cards and buying tickets from Ticket Vending Machines as the machines accept new currency notes only.
Some passengers say that there is always shortage of Rs 100 currency notes to recharge smart cards. “Many a times the Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) reject Rs 100 currency notes. I find it difficult to get Rs 100 new currency notes from the Metro counter,” said Kritika Thakur, a private firm employee.
“If you go to the customer counter, the Metro staff refuse to give you change,” she added, who get down at Barakhamba Station daily.
Travellers also complain that the TVMs do not give change back. “If I have Rs 500, I can’t recharge my smart card of Rs 200 as the TVM only accepts the exact amount and doesn’t give change back,” said Suraj Srivastava, a DU student.
“If we go to the customer care counter and ask the Metro staff for change, they don’t give us the change saying get the smart card recharged for Rs 500,” he added.Some commuters said the Metro personnel also refuse to recharge the cards manually.
“Once a TVM at Rajiv Chowk was not accepting my Metro smart card. So I went to the ticket counter and asked the Metro personnel to recharge my smart card. But he didn’t do it and asked me to go to another side of the station to and try the TVM installed there,” said Mukesh Gupta, a businessman.
“And when I went there the TVM was out of order. So finally I got my card recharged at the ticket counter only. Why can’t the Metro staff be a little sensitive to the problems of commuters?” asked Gupta.
But the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation said the Metro personnel have to recharge the smart cards if the need arises. “We ask the commuters to use the TVMs as the machines are easy to operate and it saves time of both the passengers and Metro staff,” said a DMRC spokesperson.