Good news for commuters! They will soon have prepaid cards for trains and metros

No more would you need to stand on queue and wait for your turn to buy a ticket for metro or suburban train. You can now simply buy a prepaid card and board. As per a news report by The Economic Times, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed mass transit system (MTS) operators to issue pre-paid cards, wherein a customer can transfer money that can be swiped against machines to board a train instead of standing in queues to buy travel tickets. Some MTS operators have issued pre-paid cards in partnership with banks in the past.

The central bank has set the balance in the card issued by PPI-MTS at Rs 2,000 at any given point of time. Also, MTS operators should not be allowed to refund cash that is stocked in pre-paid instruments (PPIs). The card should have a minimum validity of six months from the date of issue.

The pre-paid cards can be used at other merchants as long as their activities are allied and are within the premises of the transit system.

RBI said that the move to allow MTS operators to issue their own cards was to encourage electronic payments. "In the process of moving from cash-based payments to electronic payments, the migration of micro and small value cash payments can play a significant role in achieving the vision of less-cash society. One such area where a large number of small value cash payments take place relates to mass transit systems," RBI said, while issuing the new norms.