Smartphones could be used for paying tickets at metro stations in Chennai
Posted on: 19/Jun/2018 9:44:43 AM
Who would have thought few years back that smartphones would play great roles in our daily lives?
From surfing the internet to paying amount for cinema tickets and from helping the kids in collecting educational information to locating address etc smartphones are used for many purposes these days. It is now said that life would be very dull and boring without the presence of smartphones.
The news that has emerged now is at the metro stations in Chennai our smartphones could be used to pay the tickets. At the AFC gate or automated fare collection gate at various metro stations in Chennai, our smartphones could be used to pay for the tickets. It must be noted that CMRL or Chennai Metro Rail Limited would soon be introducing a ticket payment system and in this a smartphone app or small chip attached to smart phone would be scanned by a reader for the ticket amount. NFC or Near Field Technology is the concept that would be utilized and this is similar to the scanning smart cards at the AFC gates as the commuters move towards platform from the concourse level. This was confirmed by an official belonging to CMRL.
The official later spoke about how the smartphone must be compatible to NFC. He further explained how the new ticket payment system would need a smartphone application, which could be recharged at the counter or through recharge terminals. It is interesting to mention that when a commuter walks past the AFC gate the reader would automatically detect the smartphone present in the bag. Then the reader detects the app and then code of the station gets registered.
Once when the commuter comes out of a metro station, deduction of fare based on the distance traveled by the commuter would be done as the reader would again detect the phone through the app. Many details like station codes, distance and ticket fares are fed to the readers at the AFC gates. A chip could be purchased by the commuters if their smartphones are not NFC enabled. The cost of the chip would be about Rs 1200 and the commuter must pay the amount to get the chip and fit them to their smartphones. When the commuter enters and exit the metro stations, chips could be recharged like a smartcard. The readers at AFC gates would scan the chips easily.
