Hyderabad: Replacing a Metro Rail prepaid card which is defective or lost takes about 24 hours. Commuters would need to forgo their deposit but the balance will be transferred to the new card.
The Metro smart card acts as a virtual wallet that facilitates seamless travel. A non-refundable admin charge of Rs 20 is collected at the time of purchase, and Rs 30 as deposit. Users who lose the card should forgo this money. Every Metro Rail card has a unique serial number and stores details of all transactions. A Metro Rail station official said that when a card is lost, a commuter would need to provide a receipt of any transaction done on that card. The system would use data from there to verify details. The process takes 24 hours.
Some raised concerns over the time taken to issue a replacement card. L&THMRL is working to reduce the time to 15 minutes. It may be mentioned here that L&THMRL used to collect data including ID proof and contact details of smart card users to ensure that they can reissue the stolen or lost cards.
