Mumbaikars don’t Go for the ’smart’ option

Central Railway commuters prefer standing in queues to flashing the innovative cards; wr yet to start it

Mumbaikars don't Go for the 'smart' option

Central Railway commuters prefer standing in queues to flashing the innovative cards; wr yet to start it

A year ago, the Go Mumbai smart card schemes were designed to relieve Central and Western Railway commuters of long queues.
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However, the project undertaken by a private company, has failed to pick up, as most commuters don't prefer using it.

While the CR commuters have been hesitant about trying it out, WR hasn't been able to start the project so far.

Ticket check

Everyday, around 8.15 lakh card tickets and 39,000 season tickets are sold at ticket windows of suburban stations, while only 380 card tickets and 130 season tickets are sold through the GO Mumbai cards.

Around 35 lakh commuters travel on the CR daily, out of which only 6,000 journeys are made through Go Card season tickets.

Not popular

Officials say the CR earns revenue of around Rs 30,000 per day from the GO cards, while it earns around Rs 2.5 crore from other ticketing sources.

However, the GO cards are still to take off on the WR line, as validating machines are yet to become operational. "The project had run into glitches on the bureaucratic as well as company level," said a source.

Convenient option

Technically, the Go card is a convenient option for commuters, as they only have to flash the card at the machines before and after every journey.

CR's Chief PRO Officer Srinivas Mudgerikar said, "We are trying to popularise the GO Mumbai cards among the commuters."

"We will launch the scheme on the WR line within a month," said Paresh Singh, MD, Kaizen Automation Pvt Ltd.

Card tickets

Of the total card tickets sold, around 10 per cent are sold at ticket windows in the form of railway coupons and around six per cent are sold through Automatic Vending Machines.

The smart card

Kaizen Automation Pvt Ltd introduced the GO Mumbai card scheme in April 2008. The card allows users to travel on BEST buses and local trains