Metro smart cards not so smart

New set of cards too thick to be processed by vending machines

 Tall claims of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation of promoting Ticket Vending Machines fall flat as commuters complain that its new set of smart cards are too thick to be processed by these machines.

If you try to insert these smart cards – blue in colour on one side and green on the other – into a TVM, it comes out and the machine shows “invalid card, cant process it”.

Passengers said they are facing a huge inconvenience due to these new smart cards.
“First the Delhi Metro forces us to use the TVMs by not recharging the smart cards manually at the counters, and now it is issuing those cards which cannot get recharged by the TVMs,” said Sourav Bhatia, a businessman who takes Metro daily from Moolchand station to Chandni Chowk station.

Asked the reason why the machines are not accepting the new smart cards, a Metro staff member at Noida Sector 16 station told Deccan Herald, “It is too thick so it can’t be processed through the TVM.”

A senior Metro official said that the DMRC will look into the issue and try to resolve it.
Vanita Prasad, who takes Metro from Patel Chowk, wanted to buy this new smart card. “I like the colour of the card so I thought I would buy one. But when I to know that it can’t be recharged through the TVM, I dropped the idea of buying it,” Prasad, a private firm employee said.

Travellers also complained that the Metro staff at the counter do not listen to them.
“I came to Delhi for the first time and I was given the new Metro smart card. When I went to the counter to get it recharged manually, the Metro staff didn’t even listen,” said Rakesh Kumar, who is preparing for competitive exams. “They refused to recharge the smart card manually.”

DH News Service