Staff Reporter :
Passengers using the Dhaka Metro Rail can their travel passes online from now on and the service was inaugurated at the capital’s Agargaon Metro Station on Tuesday.
As a result, the Rapid Pass or MRT Pass can be recharged from home or through mobile phones anywhere without waiting in line at the station.
This service has been inaugurated with the slogan “No more lines, online recharging is now at your fingertips!” and implemented by the Dhaka Transport Co-ordination Authority (DTCA).
The new system allows the travel passes to be recharged through any online banking system, including bank credit cards, bKash, Nagad, and Rocket.
In order to do so, users will have to register and login on the DTCA website or mobile app.
Then, the user has to select the Rapid Pass or MRT Pass option and complete the payment.
Tk 100-5,000 can be added to the cards through this payment system. Even if the online payment is successful, the recharge will not take effect until the card is touched to the new AVM machine installed at the station.
If anyone wants to cancel their recharge within seven days before touching their card to an AVM machine, a five percent service charge will be deducted.
If a customer does not touch their card to the AVM machine within three months after recharging, the recharge amount will also be returned to the customer’s account. In this case, a five percent service charge will also be deducted. As part of the launch of the online recharge programme, preparations have been made to install a total of 32 AVM machines at 16 stations since Monday. Two machines will be installed at each station from Uttara to Motijheel.
Sheikh Moinuddin, special assistant to the chief advisor, announced the inauguration programme on Tuesday. He showed a card which received Tk 100 through a recharge on Monday, which was successfully recharged by touching it to the AVM machine.
Speaking at the event, the special assistant to the chief advisor on the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges said: “As a result of this new arrangement we have put in place to top-up balances from today, those of us who use [the metro rail] to travel no longer have to come to the station and stand in line [to recharge]. We can do it sitting at home.
“I also want to say that we are not stopping here. We will not stop. We have already started making arrangements to allow passengers to use the card wen they get out of the MRT line and board a bus.”
He said that the facility has also been implemented in transports that use the Rapid Pass.
He highlighted that work is being done to make e-tolling possible for various toll services using MRT in the future.
DTCA Executive Director Neelima Akhter said, “Many people have complained to us that there is a lot of crowding and harassment in the lines where tickets are purchased.
“Based on that, we are now trying to provide them with more sophisticated, technology-based services.”
Describing the initiative as a “milestone”, she said: “Now there is no need to wait in long lines; you can recharge from anywhere.”
