Local train commuters to get smart cards

New Delhi, Aug 15: The Indian Railways is planning to set up 6,344 Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs) across five major cities namely New Delhi, Secunderabad, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, and Pune.

Using the technology around local train commuters, can purchase ticket from touch screen ATVMs, which also accepts notes. Everyday more than three lakh passengers use local train services throughout the country.

Till now Mumbai has commuters have received seven lakh smart cards and 300 machines have been installed in the city. At present the Smart Cards purchased in a city is only valid for that particular place but soon the same card can be used in ATVMs throughout the country.

The project expected to begin in Sep 2009 would produce approximately 6.5 lakhs in a year.

The solution producing the ATVMs each worth Rs 1.5 lakh took 18 months to develop in a collaboration with the local ecosystem of Reader, KIOSK, Smart Card Suppliers and so on.

The Railway Ministry demonstrated the first solution in Aug 2007. In Oct 2007, the Railways issued five lakh Smart Cards for the Mumbai Suburban and Chennai Railway Networks.

OneIndia News