BANGALORE: Now you can travel in Namma Metro with your debit cards. On Wednesday, Bangalore Metro along with the State Bank of India officially launched the services.SBI will start issuing the cards starting Thursday. Deputy managing director (corporate strategy and new businesses), SBI, C Narasimhan said that the combo card has a near field communication radio chip that can be used to tap at the check-in counters at metro stations.“The card consists of an e-purse facility to store money for travel in Namma Metro. The e-purse can be topped at the nearest ATM or through mobile banking (SBI Freedom) or internet banking apart from cash,” Narasimhan said.Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) managing director N Sivasailam said that this was the first of its kind in the entire world. “To avail this facility, people have to apply for this card through SBI. Later, other banks could also take such initiatives,” he said.Besides acting as a travel card, the SBI-Debit-Cum-Transit card can be used for ATM transactions, at shops and malls and also at the bank’s green channel counters.BMRCL Managing Director N Sivasailam said the debit-cum-travel card was the first of its kind service in the world, a facility which is expected to be introduced in London metro only next year. He also said that once the Namma Metro line develops, BMRCL would come up with fresh offers for other banks to come out with a similar card initiative.Sivasailam thanked SBI for giving a loan of `850 crore at an interest rate of base rate-plus-0.75 per cent at a time when it’s not easy to get such loans even at base rate-plus-two per cent.The SBI combo card can be used by any person — a person’s friend or relative can use it.
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