Kochi1 smart card finally finds takers

Kochi: Kochi1 card, the country's first inter-modal transit card, is finally finding favour among the passengers.

The daily sales of the pre-paid smart card has risen by eight times in the last one month when the Axis Bank, which tied up with the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd to roll out the open loop card, provided 100 per cent discount on the card fee.

"There has been a substantial increase in the Kochi1 card sales, with the per day average card sales increasing by eight times during the period," Sanjeev Moghe, Head-Cards & Payments, Axis Bank, told DC.

The one-month discount offer, provided on the occasion of extending usage of the card to private bus platform, ended on April three. The total sales of the cards touched the 30, 000-mark from 26, 000 a month ago.

The country's third largest private sector bank now intends to take the momentum forward by making the cards easily available.

"To increase accessibility, the cards will be made available across all Axis Bank branches and also through various retail outlets across the city. Customers will also be able to recharge the cards at these locations. We're also setting up issuance kiosks at various events and corporates in Kochi," the senior official said.

The bus operators too are providing five percent discount on the tickets to boost the usage of the cards. This is in addition to 20 per cent discount on metro rides and 33 per cent discount on metro trip passes. Commuters also benefit from various discount offers from a range of merchants across the city.

The cards can be used currently in 50 buses and another 100 buses will soon accept the smart cards soon.

Meanwhile, the Axis Bank is in talks with autorickshaw drivers over extending the card usage. "We've had initial discussion with autorickshaws. We'll work with them to come up on a user friendly and scalable solution," Sanjeev Moghe said.