ICICI Bank has teamed up with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to launch Unifare Card, which functions both as a smart card for the Delhi Metro users and a debit/credit card.
Rajiv Sabharwal, Executive Director, ICICI Bank, said the bank will be launching similar cards in other metro rail systems, such as those in Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Incidentally, for the Bangalore Metro, Federal Bank has already launched such a system.
ICICI Bank’s Unifare Card will offer the benefits of a credit/debit card as well as the metro’s smart card discounts. But customers have to pay extra to get this card: ₹199 initially, and ₹20 every month. Also, after two years, they will be charged ₹199 a year, unless they spend ₹50,000 a year.
Customers can top-up these cards at ICICI Bank kiosks put up at 54 stations of the Delhi Metro. But these cards cannot be topped up at the DMRC’s ticket facilities. Every time a metro user’s prepaid balance on the smart card dips below ₹100, the user can take the card to one of the 54 kiosks and load another pre-defined amount, with minimum amount being ₹200.
However, the cards issued for the metro systems of one city cannot be used in the metro system of another city.
User base Delhi Metro is used by an average 24 lakh people every day, of which about 60 per cent use prepaid smart cards. ICICI Bank has over 2.5 crore credit and debit card customers. In the next one year, the bank hopes that one lakh Delhi Metro users will migrate to such cards.
Internationally, MasterCard has launched such cards for transit systems in Singapore, London and Sydney, said Ari Sarker, Division President, South Asia.
In London, MasterCard-based systems were launched on the bus network first. Now, it will get operational on the London Underground, which currently has a paper ticket and smart card system.
“The interoperability of metro rail systems across cities and other transport systems is a relatively new phenomenon. Technology is evolving even as we speak,” said Sarker.
But he added that the card launched in London and New York is global. “So, I can arrive in London, tap the card and get into the bus. This solution is still evolving.”
London Underground is going to migrate to a globally interoperable system.