Spain's Indra to design Mumbai monorail automatic fare collection system

Spanish IT and firm Indra Sistemas, SA, has been selected to set up an automatic fare collection system for the the Mumbai monorail project.

Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which is the nodal agency for the execution of the monorail and metro projects in Mumbai, has signed agreements with the Scomi Engineering and L&T consortium and Indra Sistemas to set up the automated fare collection system on all monorail stations under Phase 1.

This automated fare collection System will work with smart cards or with a token available at each mono and metrorail stations.

A factory acceptance test was undertaken by MMRDA along with the Scomi-L&T consortium. Currently the automated gates that regulate commuter movement, are being manufactured in China.

The automatic fare collection system will be based on the Mifare software system, which essentially means that the automated system will facilitate purchase of pre-paid tickets and their subsequent use through electronic systems to permit access to or from the transport mode.

For seamless travel between mono and metro, this system will also be implemented at the metro project as well.

''The automatic fare collection system will be compatible with the integrated ticketing system being planned, which will also facilitate a well-integrated public transport system in the coming future, " says Ratnakar Gaikwad, Metropolitan Commissioner, MMRDA, "As it is imperative that travel be as seamless as possible and offer a simple integrated fare structure across various modes of transport be it railways, bus, or metro trains.''

Aautomatic fare collection system will reduce on-board ticketing, help in easy accounting of revenue collection and generate information for MIS purposes. In addition, AFC will reduce the need for ticket checking staff and help prevent tickrtless travel.