Hyderabad: Despite providing the facility for recharging a Metro card online, it not only takes two hours for the balance amount to reflect, but also a commuter has to complete the procedure by visiting the ticket vending machine (TVM) or swiping at the gate of the Metro station.
Commuters prefer to stand in queue at the ticket counter instead of using the online service as that takes less time and they are more confident about the balance being credited immediately.
According to officials, even though smart card recharge happens usually in 30 minutes, two hours time was given to be on the safe side due to the financial transaction involved. The transaction is completed when the card is swiped at the gate or TVM.
However, when the balance in the card is less than '10 (which is the minimum fare) and you’ve recharged online, the transaction will not be completed at the gate.
A commuter has to go to the TVM machine and select the top-up option and complete the transaction.
The Delhi Metro allows users to commute on negative balance on the smart card up to the limit of the deposit amount.
This is helpful when the user has time constraints. When this was pointed out to metro officials here, they said they would look into the issue of allowing negative balance.
Additionally, when compared to other metros, the discount on smart cards is less in Hyderabad. In Bengaluru it is 15 per cent. This not only increases the number of users but also reduces the number of tokens issued, which in turn decreases the manual intervention.
According to an L&THMRL official, “A discount of 10 per cent only is provided today for smart card users and smart card usage is up now (47 per cent) with sale of 2,000 per day. Most Metro systems provide only 10 per cent discount.”
