Smart cards for parking too at Metro stations

BANGALORE: BMRCL’s new proposal, park-and-ride facility at two Metro stations on  Reach 1, might benefit commuters using Metro smartcards, BMRCL officials indicated on Tuesday.The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) will be sealing tenders to manage parking lots at the Byappanahalli and Swami Vivekananda Road Metro Stations on January 20. These tenders will be issued on lease and the company handling the project will have to install computerised parking ticket counters. However, clearing the air over the proposed parking fee, BMRCL officials stated that the fee could go up once the tenders are filed.“There could be an increase in the parking fee, but we will take a call on that once the tenders come in,” said Vasanth Rao, GM, Finance, BMRCL.The Metro corporation further asserted that they would introduce common smartcards to pay for the travel and parking in the Metro. “This will not be introduced initially, but subsequently we will introduce this facility to benefit commuters. The smartcard system already has the software and feature to include the parking fee and once full-fledged services start, the feature will be introduced,” Rao added.The parking fee has been fixed at Rs 20 per hour for four-wheelers, Rs 5 for the first four hours for two wheelers and Re 1 per hour for bicycles.