Card terminals at Metro stations a waste: Commuters

Bengaluru: While BMRCL has installed ‘card top-up terminals’ at all Metro stations, many regular passengers questioned the rationale, saying it is a waste of taxpayers’ money.
BMRCL said passengers who recharged their travel cards through online modes can present their smart cards at CTTs for the recharge amount to be reflected instantly.
In other Metro systems, passengers need to tap only at the automatic fare collection system gate after the top-up online, and the balance will be immediately added to the account.BMRCL recently installed advanced AFC gates that accept both National Common Mobility Cards and QR-code based ticketing in all stations.
Naveen, a netizen, tweeted: “They had to build a separate machine and a separate mechanism just to credit the top-up amount to the card, instead of integrating it with the automated gates. That shows the will, integration plans, forward thinking in a Silicon Valley.”
BMRCL managing director Anjum Parwez said: “AFC gates take about 30 minutes to read. The new machine will activate instantly.”
Nihar Thakkar, another passenger tweeted: “If I can claim the online top-up amount instantly from the top-up terminal, why can’t the AFC gate just auto-claim my top-up amount while paying?”
In 2012, BMRCL installed ticket-vending machines at major stations like MG Road and Byappanahalli. However, the machines which were meant to help passengers get tokens or recharge smartcards became dysfunctional after demonetisation. tnn