Soon, Metro and buses will have the same smart card

The wait for a common smart card that you could use to travel on both Delhi Metro and city's public bus service is going to end very soon. Atul Mathur reports.

The wait for a common smart card that you could use to travel on both Delhi Metro and city's public bus service is going to end very soon.

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Delhi government officials said Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has already set up a clearing house — a bank-end process centre which will keep a tab on the usage of card on different modes of transport and will divide the revenue between the companies accordingly — and is now working on a common software.

Officials said the card would initially be accepted in private orange-coloured buses run under the cluster scheme and Metro's own feeder buses apart from the Metro system. "Once the system is streamlined we'll allow the card in DTC buses too," said a senior transport department official.

A senior Delhi government official said the smart card will be made compatible with electronic ticketing machines (ETM), which are currently being used in buses under the cluster scheme. The same machines will be used to dispense travel tickets in DTC and Metro's feeder buses in the next few months. Officials said Delhi Metro and transport department has already met several times to work out the modalities.