National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has announced that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is now accepting the RuPay card for metro travel on the 23 km-long Airport Express Line from New Delhi to Dwarka Sector-21 with effect from December 28, 2020.
RuPay contactless cardholders can use their cards on this line to board the train and skip long ticketing queues. Passengers travelling on the Airport Line do not need to buy a separate token or card to board the train as their RuPay card will act as the travel ticket. The facility will be available on the entire Delhi Metro network by 2022.
According to the statement, commuters will also be able to use a mobile phone to enter or exit a metro station by storing their RuPay Cards on their NFC-enabled phones soon. Apart from using this card for travelling on Delhi Metro, RuPay Cardholders can shop, dine and perform regular purchases like any other debit/credit card.
Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched ‘One Nation One Card' – an inter-operable transport card programme for passengers – to pay at multiple transport operators using their existing RuPay Contactless NCMC (National Common Mobility Card).
These cards can be used to make ticket payments in transit including metros, buses, cabs, tolls, etc. enabling automatic offline cashless payments using the technology of a secure wallet on a card, thereby reducing the transaction time.
Mangu Singh, MD, DMRC, said, “The implementation of the NCMC facility on the Airport Express Line of the Delhi Metro is an important step forward towards making travel more convenient for passengers. Now, any passenger holding an NCMC-compliant RuPay Card will be able to travel seamlessly on the Airport Line without purchasing any additional smart card or token. We hope to make the entire Delhi Metro system NCMC-compliant by 2022.”
Adding to it, Nalin Bansal, Head – RuPay and NFS, NPCI, said, “We are pleased to be a part of this ‘Make in India' initiative with DMRC that is set to transform the passengers' journey. RuPay Contactless NCMC is a testament of customers' increased preference for travelling cashless and hassle-free to save time and long queues. The cutting-edge qSPARC offline technology backing the RuPay Contactless NCMC provides split-second response at the terminals and gates, enabling queue busting.”
He added, “This initiative embarks RuPay on a journey to make customers ‘atmanirbhar', less dependent on cash and at the same time experience RuPay card's numerous features. It's our constant endeavor at NPCI to offer innovative features and functionalities to all our RuPay Cardholders to make all their transactions convenient.”
