mumbai the central railway cr on thursday launched the go mumbai smartcard a firstofitskind travel card which works like a prepaid telephone card and can be used for travel on the main line of cr its harbour line and best buses this is a redletter day a journey begins with buying a ticket and serpentine queues can be extremely cumbersome for passengers the go mumbai smartcard is one of the steps we have taken to permanently terminate these long queues said general manager of cr sowmya raghavan who unveiled the cardshe added that the service will soon be extended to western railway wr and may later even be used for paying toll charges parking and travelling by taxis and autos the smartcard similar to londons oyster card is preloaded with credit in multiples of rs 50 upto a maximum rs 2000 commuters have to flash the card on a validator at the start and end of the journey the system then deducts the appropriate amount of fare for the specific journey as many as 434 validators for the smartcard have already been set up at the entry and exit gates of 23 stationsthe smartcard which was developed by kaizen automation is common for the first and second class but the differentiation is based on the validation ticket checkers who will be equipped with handheld devices to check the validity and class of travel will ensure that the card is not being misused in addition if the card is not flashed at the destination station the maximum possible fare on the transit service providers route will be deducted from the card the card is available at 125 service delivery points across the city which include best chowkies and 10 important stations on cr the card will remain valid up to five years from the date of issue and two years from the last date of usecommuters have to pay a one time cost of rs 37 which includes card issuance and activation fee of rs 10 a refundable security deposit of rs 25 and id cost of rs 2