Noida Metro cards sale dip, commuters blame high fare

Noida Metro cards sale has dipped considerably in a little over four months of its operation. Commuters have blamed high fare as main reason behind it. “A total of 2,041 such travellers cards were issued during May 1 and 20, as against 3,686 in April and 5,064 in March this year. As many as 5,220 cards were issued in February and a whopping 3,363 within six days of its operation January 26 to 31,” news agency PTI reported.

Noida Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC) has joined hands with the State Bank of India to issue SBI NMRC City 1 card. Noida Metro charges a fee of 1.8 per cent or Rs 12. Card users get 10 per cent discount on each journey.

“The fee of 1.8 per cent for top-up is steep and uncalled for. Delhi Metro issues a non-bank card for commuters to travel and they do not charge any fee on the top-up,” said Ajay Chaturvedi, a senior citizen.

A commuter has to pay a minimum of Rs 10 to Rs 50 to travel on weekdays i.e., from Monday to Saturday. While one has to spend anywhere between Rs 10 and Rs 40 on Sundays and national holidays. 

Top-up of Rs 1.6 crore has been done on these cards by the commuters so far, the Noida Metro data said.

Another daily traveller, Akash Singh said there is a lack of seamless connectivity between Noida Metro and Delhi Metro, that acts as a single big hurdle for the commuters to use Noida metro Aqua line.

At present, commuters have to exit at Sector 51 station of Noida Metro and walk nearly 300 metres on an under-construction road to take the Blue Line at Sector 52 station.

(With PTI inputs)