The Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited has decided to extend the validity of smart cards from one year to 10 years, up to 2030, in order to avoid reactivation related issues. This came into effect from September 19. The validity of the smart card was initially for one year from the date of the last top-up.
BMRCL resumed its operations from September 07 and has only permitted the use of Contactless Smart Cards (CSC) and has prohibited token sales at counters in order to ensure contactless travel for as long as possible.
According to the BMRCL, since the metro services had been suspended for five and half months due to COVID-19 pandemic, many commuters had been facing issues regarding their card’s validity. The BMRCL has urged the cardholders to top-up their cards using netbanking or the Namma Metro App.
BL Yashvanth Chavan, Chief Public Relations Officer, BMRCL, told The New Indian Express, “In line with the SOP in place for Metro travel, anyone who has topped up their card recently, has to either travel by Metro or get their card validated at any station within seven days. This ten-year period will come into effect from the date of validation of the travel card.”
Earlier, not using the card for one year required a reactivation at a cost of Rs 20. Since resuming the operations as a part of Unlock guidelines, the corporation has been receiving complaints from commuters who could not recharge the card until reactivating it at the counter.
Bengaluru Metro restarted operations from September 11 on both Green and Purple lines, and are operating between 7 am and 9 pm. A maximum of 400 passengers are permitted to travel in each train at any given point in time. If a train already has 400 passengers, it will skip stopping at the next station.
All passengers have been directed to wear face masks. Commuters have been told to use hand sanitizers provided at every metro station and are also advised to carry their own sanitizers. Passengers have been asked to keep every alternate seat in the metro vacant and standing is allowed only at the marked areas.