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— Ramesh Sharma

New track: Mr P.S. Jayakumar, Country Business Manager, Global Consumer Group, Citi India (right) with Mr Raj Kumar, Director Operations, DMRC at the launch of Delhi Metro and Citibank co-branded transit credit card in the capital on Wednesday.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, May 7 Aiming to tap the Delhi Metro commuters who use pre-paid smart cards (issued by DMRC), Citibank India on Wednesday launched a co-branded credit card — Delhi Metro Citibank credit card.

So, Delhi Metro users can now use this credit card as their “smart card” to access and travel in the Metro rail, apart from using the card in other merchant outlets. They would be receiving reward points on their expense, which can be redeemed for Metro travel or other purposes.

Claiming that this is the country’s first co-branded ‘2-in-1’ transit card system, Mr P.S. Jayakumar, Country Business Manager, Global Consumer Group, Citi India, said, “The unique value proposition of this card is that it combines the benefit of a Metro Smart Card with the advantages of credit card.” DMRC will continue to sell its standalone smart cards for which it charges Rs 50 refundable deposit fee.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) currently has 7.5 lakh commuters who use the Metro Smart Card (which is issued by DMRC). The daily usage of the smart card is about 3.5 lakh. Citibank has a credit card user base of 3.6 million in India.

“Citi India has bagged the rights for the co-branded card after an intense competition, which is presently valid for 2 years, through the competitive bidding route,” said Mr Raj Kumar, Director, Operations, DMRC. The bank has paid Rs 6 crore to DMRC for the 2-year arrangement.

Citi India is looking to issue 2 lakh co-branded ‘2-in-1’ transit credit cards over the next two years. Plans are afoot to make available the benefits of this product for pre-paid as well as debit cards. To use the credit card as a Metro smart card, a commuter first has to “top up” the card with the desired amount, say Rs 100.

Citibank will transfer Rs 100 to Delhi Metro and bill the amount to the user in his monthly bill. When the commuter uses the metro, the ticket value will be debited from the credit-cum-smart card.

Technically, the smart card has a ‘chip’ of Delhi Metro and ‘magnetic strip’ of Citibank-Visa.

Delhi Metro Citibank Credit card provides 10 per cent discount on travel fare paid with the ‘2-in-1’ card. Moreover, there are 2 reward points for every Rs 100 spent on the Metro and 1 reward point for every Rs 100 spent elsewhere.

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