SPOT THE DIFFERENCE: The new Metro Railway smart card. Picture by Tamaghna Banerjee

Metro Railway will launch smart cards compatible with the new flap gates and bring back multi-ride tickets of high denominations by July 27.

After introducing radio frequency identification (RFID) tokens this month, Metro Railway stopped selling return journey tickets and multi-ride tickets for over 12 trips. As a result, serpentine queues have become common at the stations even during non-peak hours.

The new smart cards would also serve as multi-ride tickets. While buying one, the commuter will have to say whether he wants to use it as a smart card or a multi-ride ticket.

Smart cards will be of Rs 100, Rs 200, Rs 300 and Rs 500 denomination, valid for 30, 60, 90 and 150 days, respectively,

The multi-ride tickets will be for 12, 40, 60 and 80 rides, valid for 21, 30, 60 and 90 days. Unlike smart cards, a multi-ride ticket can be used to travel a specific distance or less.

“We understand that passengers are facing problems in the absence of multi-ride and return tickets. Hence we sped up the process of introducing smart cards, which will be available to commuters by July 27,” said Protyush Ghosh, the deputy general manager of Metro Railway.

Those using smart cards now can submit their cards to get new cards.

“The balance in the old card will be transferred to the new one,” said a senior Metro official.

Those getting a new smart card or a multi-ride ticket will have to make a security deposit of Rs 100.

According to the Metro authorities, about 4 lakh smart cards will be available at all the 23 stations initially. The daily passenger count of Metro is five lakh. The number of smart card users is 1.6 lakh.

“We will issue such a huge number of smart cards because we want more and more commuters to go for these cards. More smart cards mean shorter queues at counters. Also, since the new smart cards do not need to be touched to the sensors on the flap gates, passenger movement will be faster,” said Ghosh.

The current smart cards will become invalid once the existing ticketing system is phased out at the end of the month.

The new smart card is of a lighter shade of blue than the old one. A six-point guideline on using the card has been printed at its back.