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http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1939361,000600010004.htm

Mumbai replicates Europe, gets common card for public transport

Rajendra Aklekar

Mumbai, February 26, 2007







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With Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav approving the multi-purpose smart cards for railways, Mumbai will finally adopt the European method of public transport by having a common card for public transport in Mumbai. The pre-paid card, already in use on BEST buses since Jan 2, will now be used on suburban railways, helping commuters to conduct cashless transactions.

Lalu's railway budget speech states that the Central Railway will undertake this as a pilot project of issuing tickets through multi-purpose smart cards. The tickets can be used on both the railways.

The pre-paid card called Go Mumbai has been developed by a Dadar-based company Kaizen Automation Limited, which is doing the project in collaboration with ERG Transit. "The card has been a complete hit. Since its launch on Jan 2, the BEST has earned more than 1.74 crore revenue from the smart card project," Sudhir Jahagirdar, BEST's deputy PRO said.

Prakash Kamat, managing director of Kaizen told HT that he had already received a letter from the ministry of railways announcing the acceptance. The principal technology provider for the system is ERG Transit Systems, which have done similar projects in Singapore and HongKong and in US, Europe and Australia. The fundamental principle behind the functioning of the card is based on radio frequency 13.56 MHz.

The second project that has received approval is about automatic ticket vending machines (ATVMs) on railways. Under this, commuters can buy cards of various denominations valid only on the railways, swipe them in ATVMs installed at stations and procure a ticket of their choice. The relevant amount will be debited from the card. "This project has been developed by the Centre for Railway Information Systems and it will be completed within the new financial year. The pre-paid cards will immensely help commuters as they will not have to wait in endless queues, nor have to hassle about cash transactions," AK Jhingron, WR's general manager told HT.

About 175 ATVM touch screen machines will be installed at major in phases stations on WR. The machine will have various options like travelling station, single or return journey, first class or second-class etc and money will be debited accordingly, he added.