Bengaluru: They were introduced to make life easier for commuters on the Metro Rail, but now instead of queuing up to buy tickets, regulars on the trains are standing in long queues to recharge their smart cards.
Bengaluru's Metro Rail passengers either need to visit counters at the stations or use the web top-up facility to recharge the cards unlike in Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai, where they are allowed to recharge them using digital wallets like Paytm and PhonePe.
The BMRCL,which introduced the smart cards to promote cashless transactions and a hassle-free journey for commuters, claims that 70 per cent of its passengers currently use them. But it has not yet tied up with unified payment interface (UPI)-based apps like PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm and BHIM to recharge the cards, leaving the passengers feeling as hassled as in the past.
"In many cities today, the Metro corporation offers smart card recharge services. PhonePe users can recharge their smart card using the app , which also has a cash-back offer. But in Bengaluru we still need to stand in long queues to recharge our cards. These queues are longer and move at a slower pace than those with people buying regular tickets. So many smart card holders now feel they were better off buying the usual tickets," said Mr Sharath Sharma, a frequent Metro commuter.
"Although smart cards were introduced to cut down queues, BMRCL has failed to gauge the demand for online recharge. They said the smart cards were the solution to long queues, but now it's just the reverse. Buying tickets seems a much better option as the website is down most of the time and the staff at the counters often have no change," complained another commuter , Anitha HS..
When contacted, a senior BMRCL official agreed that the majority of the customers topped up their smart cards at the station counters. "We have also heard that the website is slow at times. We are working on it and it will improve soon. The BMRCL will get in touch with the service providers and turn to digital wallet recharge soon too," he assured.
