Delhi: Common mobility card scheme will be delayed

New Delhi: The common mobility card scheme for Delhi Metro trains, DTC, and cluster buses has been delayed as the specialised chips for the purpose haven’t been procured yet.

The tender rolled out for procuring SAM chips, which are to be fitted with the electronic ticketing machines in buses, did not get much response. The government will now have to go for a new tender again.

According to the scheme, Delhiites can travel in DTC and cluster scheme buses using Metro smart cards as a common mobility card. The common mobility card will be facilitated through the use of a secured access module (SAM) chip to be fitted with electronic ticketing machines (ETMs) given to bus conductors.

The government had initiated the process for procuring at least 2,000 SAM chips, to be fitted with ETMs to enable real time fare transactions, last month by inviting interested vendors for its supply, said a senior Delhi government official.

He, however, added: “The chip is proprietary. We tried to get it through tender to authorised resellers of a South Korean company. However, they did not show interest, may be as it was a small quantity. We will go for a new tender again.” SAM is a smart card installed permanently in the equipment interacting with the cards or tickets. It is used to enhance the security and cryptography performance in devices to perform secure transactions in paying terminals.

Meanwhile, the trial of common mobility card has been started in 100 each of DTC and cluster buses, a transport department official said.