NXP helps Indian Railways for a smooth journey

NEW DELHI, INDIA: NXP Semiconductors, the independent company founded by Philips today announced that its secure microcontroller-based chip technology MIFARE DESFire has been selected by the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), an IT organization under the Ministry of Railways, to power contactless smart cards for automatic fare collection using ATVMs (Automatic Ticket Vending Machines) across various cities in India.

Indian Railways, one of the largest and busiest rail transport networks in the world - carrying over 18 million passengers every day - will utilize NXP’s technology solutions to improve the overall passenger experience and drive operational efficiencies.

These announcements confirm NXP’s strategy to focus on its position in the Identification business in India, said a press release. On a global basis, 75 per cent of all electronic tickets in public transport use NXP MIFARE technology.

CRIS developed an Automatic Ticket Vending Machine (ATVM) as part of an Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS), for which it has won a Prime Minister’s Award for excellence in public administration from 2006 to 2008. A 28-member project team, led by Vikram Chopra, Director (Operations), CRIS, received the award on behalf of the Indian Railways from the Prime Minister last year.

CRIS had initially in 2007 developed the smart card based contactless ticketing solutions using NXP’s MIFARE 1KB Classic chip in Mumbai Suburban Railway and Chennai, wherein approximately 5 lakh cards were issued to passengers in the Central / Western Railway at Mumbai and Southern Railway at Chennai.

These user-friendly ATVMs will be rolled out across five major cities in India, namely New Delhi, Secunderabad, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Pune. Together with card and inlay-manufacturer Siepmann’s Card Systems, NXP will provide MIFARE DESFire-based ICs for approximately 6.5 Lakh contactless cards over a period of one year.

NXP said this project is expected to go live in September 2009 and will initially be rolled out in two cities.

NXP has partnered with Siepmann’s Card Systems in implementing the project.

“We have worked closely with NXP to develop a cost-effective, manageable product that will withstand Indian conditions and provide innovative solutions to transport systems,” said P Vishwanath Bhas, managing director, Siepmann’s Card Systems Pvt Ltd.

Commenting on the development, Ashok Chandak, senior director, global sales and marketing for India for NXP Semiconductors said, “We see a significant growth in the use of contactless Smart Card technology in transport systems in India, and are well positioned to cater to the needs of current transport infrastructure upgrades, especially road and rail projects.”

He said NXP’s secure technology platforms are ideal for multi-application smart cards in transport schemes, e-government and identity applications, and have been used in several projects such as the multipurpose national identity cards with the Government of India.