New Delhi: The Delhi Metro commuters will now be able to avail the facility of a new type of Smart Card which comes with an Auto Top-Up feature enabling them to recharge it automatically at Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) gates of the Metro stations (whenever Metro services resume). This New Smart Card is available for customers through the App 'Autope' which is specially developed for this purpose.
The Smart Cards issued by the 'Autope' will offer auto top-up functionality whenever the value of Smart Card goes below Rs. 100 and will automatically recharge the card with Rs. 200 at the Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) Entry Gate itself. 'Autope' will auto-debit the topped up value from the customer's linked card/bank account the next working day.
To avail the services of 'Autope' Smart Card, the users will be required to register by downloading the 'Autope' app (available on Google Play store for Android users and Apple store for Iphone users) or register at Autope's mobile site autope.in and link their Bank/Credit Card/UPI account to the Card as a one-time exercise. A nominal fee (maximum of 1%) will be charged as convenience fee from the customer for each transaction.
In addition, those commuters who already have existing Delhi Metro Smart Cards can also get the Auto Top-Up feature enabled in their cards by registering through this App (Autope). Such existing cardholders need to visit the Customer Care Centre of any of the Metro stations after three days of registration to get their smart cards activated for this facility as a one-time exercise. This feature comes handy at these times wherein, commuters are going to follow a new travel protocol (whenever Metro services resume) which calls for social distancing and contactless services due to the ongoing Covid pandemic. However, irrespective of the new card/feature, the existing Smart Cards owned by the commuters will continue to remain valid in the same manner as they used to be so far.
Apart from auto-top-up facility, the benefits extended by 'Autope' also include home delivery of New Cards, besides their customisation facility and 5% additional discount on each top-up.
This new measure will eliminate the need for queuing up at the Metro Stations to recharge the Smart Card. Generally, even in case of online recharges, the card needs to be presented to Add Value Machines (AVMs) for the store value to get validated; 'Autope' eliminates the AVM layer as well.
'Autope' smart cards are supported by auto debit facility for recurring payments launched recently by National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) and it allows the customers to setup UPI Mandate for their Metro payments. 'Autope' has been developed by Anduril Technologies Pvt Ltd in association with DMRC and NPCI.
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