Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is in talks with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to relax some conditions regarding smart card usage in order to make its cards usable across different modes of transport such as metros and buses.

As per the RBI norms, for a card to accept funds for different modes, two conditions have to be met – the organisation should have ‘know your customer’ (KYC) norms for all card holders, and the cards should not be refundable.

Stumbling block

“I have had a few meetings with the RBI’s Deputy Governor on the issue. They may relax the KYC norms, but they are insisting on the non-refundable point. But, for the card to be used across different modes, it will have to be refundable,” said Sharat Sharma, Director-Operations, DMRC, while speaking at a PHDCCI conference on sustainable transport.

At present, DMRC smart cards are refundable and transferrable.

DMRC is trying to have a common, interoperable card with Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) to start with, Sharma told BusinessLine on the sidelines.

Office timings

Earlier, Sharma called for staggering of office timings and office days to deal with crowding at peak hours.

“With passenger transportation, we also see that our utilisation of assets is not that much. It is about 30 per cent through the day, with the exception of peak hour,” said Sharma.

“So, staggering is a solution. Say on Sundays – the ridership drops to 19 lakh against 27 lakh on week days. Can we think of some institutions remaining open on Sundays so that the rush from other days can be taken off,” asked Sharma.

DMRC carries 27 lakh passengers on week days, moving them an average of 17 km. DTC carries about 45 lakh passengers but the lead is about 4.5 km.

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