New Delhi, July 20 (IANS): Helping commuters avoid long queues at ticket counters, the Delhi Metro on Monday launched smart card recharge facility at ICICI Bank's Business Correspondent Networks (outlets) across the national capital.

A Delhi Metro official told IANS that these outlets, numbering approximately 800, were not the bank's branches and can be located by commuters by sending an SMS -- METROPin Code -- to 9222208888.

A statement said the customer needs to provide the smart card number, the recharge amount (minimum Rs.100; maximum Rs.3,000) and the mobile number to the agent at the outlet who would initiate the request. The customer can pay in cash.

Once done, the customer will receive status update of the transaction through SMS; and for a successful transaction will need to validate the top up amount in the smart card at any of the automatic vending machines installed at 86 Metro stations in order to complete the process.

In case of a failed transaction, the customer would be notified of the reason.

Presently, about 70 per cent of the Metro commuters use smart cards, with approximately 16,000 smart cards sold every day from the various stations of the Delhi Metro network.