NEW DELHI: There has been a significant rise in the percentage of Delhi Metro commuters who use smart cards since January vis-a-vis the figures during pre-Covid time, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said on Sunday.
From January 2022, around 78 per cent of the metro commuters have been using smart cards to travel on a regular basis, up from around 70 per cent in the pre-Covid days, it said. “The year 2020 also recorded 100 per cent usage of smart cards for 3-4 months when the metro services were resumed after a complete shutdown in September 2020 and sale of tokens were strictly not allowed as a precautionary measure,” the DMRC said.
Usage of smart card among Delhi Metro commuters for their daily travel has witnessed a significant surge in the year 2022 so far, it said. In 2002, Delhi Metro became the first metro rail in the world to introduce Contactless Smart Tokens and Contactless Smart Cards in place of paper tickets to travel in the Metro.
Earlier, the smart cards had to be procured from foreign vendors but now they are manufactured in India as a major initiative towards government’s ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ mission., officials said.