Payment of fare in Metro by means of microchip-cards to be possible after Novruz holiday

As APA informs according to the chief of the technical department of the Baku Metro Fuad Taghizade, because it is unbeneficial to distribute cards to the employees of the Metro, it was decided to sell them to passengers in the initial phase. F.Taghizade considering important establishment of the reserve card fund said that it is intended to bring 500 thousand more cards in the following phase.

The duration of use of microchip-cards will depend on possibilities of passengers. So, passengers depending on their financial possibilities will be able to load their cards for several trips in the stations of the Metro.

It is planned that initially cards will be used in parallel with tokens. At the same time, it will be possible use microchip-cards for carrying out bank operations as well. However, a network should be established for this purpose and it does not exist for the time being. In general, it is expected that switching to the card system will complete in 1-2 years.

64 turnstiles produced by the “Lot” Company of Ukraine have been established in the stations so far for the purpose of ensuring switching to the microchip-card system. The Metro will purchase 132 more turnstiles from that Company during this year.

F.Taghizade said that the general worth of the contracts concluded with the “Lot” Company is about $2 million. Purchasing, installation, software development of turnstiles and etc. were intended in this contract. Purchasing of these turnstiles costs the Baku Metro approximately $5-6 thousand.