Value Added Ticketing Services of Hyderabad Metro Rail

A Metro can be called truly modern based on the technology it adopts. In this regard, the ticketing solution, which has been proposed for the Hyderabad Metro Rail, is a state-of-the-art Automated Fare Collection System (AFC). This is based on Contactless Fare Media Technology.

L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Ltd had earlier announced the arrival of a prototype of Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) system in Hyderabad from Korea. The prototype of AFC has been manufactured by the company Samsung SDS. L&T Metro Rail has adopted this modern fare collection system, which makes it swift and easier for passengers.  These machines can handle high traffic so that there are no long queues. They come with enhanced revenue security and are considered user-friendly since ticketing gates and vending machines are very much user friendly for the physically challenged. They also feature an induction loop for the hearing impaired as well as interactive touch screen menu. This is considered an important milestone for Hyderabad Metro Rail Project.

The fare collection system envisages categorizing the Metro Stations into two separate areas such as 'paid' and 'un-paid' areas. The paid and unpaid areas would be then separated by the automatic entry and exit gates and fencing. This ensures that the person only with a valid ticket can enter the system. The system has been designed as a closed one that features ticket checking at the entry and exit, which ensures 100% ticket check -in system.

The Automatic Fare Collection System is best-suited and also recognized world-over. It comes with a web application for commuters to top-up/recharge their contactless smart cards through internet. This system will be accepting coins, banknotes, bank credit/debit cards as well as smart cards for the payment mechanism. The proposed Automatic Fare Collection System has some key sub-systems such as Automatic Gates, Ticket Vending Machines, Ticket Office Machines, Add Value Machines, Ticket Readers and Portable Ticket Analyzers.

The tickets issued for Hyderabad Metro is of two types. They are Contactless Smart Card (CSC) and Contactless Smart Token (CST). The contactless tokens are pre-paid options for journey between a fixed set of metro stations and they can be bought for a single trip/ return trip and is suited more for non-frequent users. Contactless Smart Cards are like stored value cards and available as either monetary (e-Purse) form or non-monetary (Pass) form or combination of these options for attracting the regular and also frequent users. In this system, the money value, which is equal to fare between any two metro stations, is deducted automatically from the stored value at exit Gate.