New Delhi, Dec 22 (IANS) Delhi Metro Tuesday unveiled “smart key chains”, a new smart card that is half the size of the present one and more friendly for thousands of commuters who wish to travel ticket-less.
“The sleek new ’smart key chains’ can be used in the same way as normal smart cards to enter and exit Metro stations, that is by swiping on the designated space on the automatic fare collection (AFC) gates,” Delhi Metro spokesperson Anuj Dayal said.

“The decision to introduce the smart key chains was taken as many Metro commuters use cars, two-wheelers or bicycles and normally use key chains which they can now replace with the new devices,” he added.

While the Metro smart cards are of the size of credit cards so that they can be kept in wallets, the smart key chains are much smaller so that they can easily be carried in pockets. The corners are rounded and the sides tapered so that they do not cause cuts while being taken out. They are made with high-quality plastic and are coated with acrylic resin to make them unbreakable.

Delhi Metro has procured 50,000 smart key chains in the first lot. About 1.5 million smart cards are presently in circulation. Among over 900,000 Metro commuters daily, 55 percent are smart card users while the rest use tokens.