Bengaluru Metro Rail Corp. on March 16 launched a prototype of the contactless smart card the subway network for the Indian city of Bengaluru will use starting Apr 4, a spokesperson for the agency tells PaymentsSource.
Korea-based Samsung-SDS Ltd. and the government-owned Rail Nirman Corp. developed the card, which will access prepaid funds. The operator automatically will deduct the cost of transit rides from the account each time commuters tap the card at the turnstile, according to the spokesperson. Readers earlier had to insert single ticket tokens.
The corporation had delayed the card’s launch because of various infrastructure issues. It previously had planned to launch the card in July when the first route of the subway network was to go live (
The operator will make the card available to commuters before April 4, when the first phase of the Bengaluru Metro is supposed to go live, the spokesperson adds. Commuters eventually will be able to use the value in the card accounts to shop at restaurants, food outlets, shops and establishments in the near future, he says.
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