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NXP Semiconductors bags smart card chips order from Railways
NXP Semiconductors, a company founded by electronics major Philips, today said it has bagged an order from the Indian Railways to supply smart card chips for automatic fare collection.
"NXP will provide its chips for about 6.5 lakh contactless smart cards over a period of one year to the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) for automatic fare collection project,"NXP Semiconductors Senior Director ( Global Sales and Marketing -- India) Ashok Chandak told reporters here.
The project is expected to go live in September 2009 and will initially be rolled out in two cities, he added, however declining to comment on the revenue projections.
CRIS is the IT arm of the Indian Railways and will use NXP&aposs technology for powering contactless smart cards for automatic fare collection.
These smart cards would be used at the Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs) that the Indian Railways intends to set up at five cities of New Delhi, Secunderabad, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Pune, he said. About 500 such ATVMs are expected to be set up in the next one year in these cities.
NXP is also looking at the huge opportunities offered by the Government of India&aposs Unique Identity (UID) project headed by former Infosys chief Nandan Nilekani.
"Government&aposs UID project is a big opportunity and we would look at being a part of the project," Chandak said.