To contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic Delhi Metro has been shut since the lockdown begins in the country. Now it is gearing up to soon commence the services when it starts getting normal. Now it has launched a new smart card in the city that comes with an auto top-up feature. Whenever the Metro Services resume this feature will allow the commuters to recharge it automatically at Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) gates of the Metro stations. This smart card will be available through the App ‘Autope’ which is specially developed for this purpose.
The new Delhi Metro smart card is known as the Zero Human Intervention Metro Smart Card that will be available through the app Autope. The dedicated app comes with an auto top-up functionality whenever the value of the card reaches below Rs 100 while automatically recharging the card with Rs 200 at the Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) Entry Gate itself. Delhi Metro notifies that the ‘Autope’ will auto-debit the topped-up value from the customer’s linked card/bank account the next working day.
At the moment, the commuters either have to buy a Delhi Metro Smart Card or a token from the counter themselves for the ride. But now the existing cardholder will also get this feature enabled by registering through the app. After registering the customers have to visit the Customer Care Centre of any of the Metro stations after three days of registration to get their smart cards activated for this facility as a one-time exercise.
DMRC in its statement said, “This feature comes handy at these times wherein, commuters are going to follow a new travel protocol (whenever Metro services resume) which calls for social distancing and contactless services due to the ongoing COVID pandemic. However, irrespective of the new card/feature, the existing Smart Cards owned by the commuters will continue to remain valid in the same manner as they used to be so far.”
Besides this, the customers can also ask for the home delivery of the new cards via the app only besides their customisation facility and 5% additional discount on each top-up.
This feature will help DMRC in maintaining social distancing, there is no need to queue up at the Stations to get the Smart Card recharged. Generally, even in case of online recharges, the card needs to be presented to Add Value Machines (AVMs) for the store value to be validated; ‘Autope’ eliminates the AVM layer as well.
Autope smart cards are supported by the auto-debit facilities for recurring payments launched recently by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) and it allows the customers to set up UPI Mandate for their Metro payments. ‘Autope’ is developed by M/s Anduril Technologies Pvt. Ltd. in association with DMRC and NPCI.
At the moment Autope app is available for download for Android users via Google Play store while the Mobile app will soon be available on Apple store for iPhone users. The users can also get their Bank / Credit Card / UPI account linked to the Card via Autope’s mobile site autope.in A nominal fee (maximum of 1%) will be charged a convenience fee from the customer for each transaction.
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