Payment using biometrics will be launched in six regional metros by the end of 2025

The government plans to launch biometric payments in six regional metros by the end of 2025. Market sources consider such terms to be optimistic and estimate the minimum cost of equipping stations at RUB 260 million. Experts warn about the high risks of additional costs and technical difficulties during the implementation of the project, including those related to the need to implement solutions in the field of information security.

Kommersant got acquainted with six “road maps” approved in December 2023 for the launch of biometric fare payment systems in regional metros. From the documents it follows that in the metro of Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Kazan and Samara, the facial fare payment service will be launched in 2024. In St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk – until the end of 2025.

“Road maps” were developed on behalf of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko, Kommersant was told at the Center for Biometric Technologies (CBT is a joint venture of Rostelecom, the Central Bank and the Federal Property Management Agency). The Deputy Prime Minister’s office added that they continue to work on an “ecosystem of biometric services.” In the future, they say, in the metro it is planned to introduce not only a payment system by sight, but also to provide the ability to link social cards and travel cards to the user’s biometric data.

Neither Mr. Grigorenko’s office nor the Central Bank announced the expected cost of launching the systems. “The final budget for each city will be determined in accordance with the road map after the projects are approved,” the Ministry of Digital Development explained to Kommersant. The Ministry of Transport declined to comment.

General Director and owner of OVISION (develops facial recognition systems) Mikhail Kozlov notes that on average, installing video cameras, validators and other equipment for one metro station can cost 400–800 thousand rubles. Taking into account additional infrastructure (for example, server), equipping one station with two terminals can reach about 2 million rubles, clarifies Mr. Kozlov. A Kommersant source familiar with the details of the project says that the monthly costs of ensuring the functioning of the service at one station amount to 800 thousand rubles.

Thus, according to Kommersant sources in the market, the cost of installing terminals and the necessary equipment for payment using biometrics in St. Petersburg (72 stations) could amount to about 144 million rubles, in Nizhny Novgorod (15 stations) – about 30 million rubles, in Yekaterinburg (9 stations) – about 18 million rubles, in Novosibirsk (13 stations) – about 26 million rubles, in Kazan (11 stations) – about 22 million rubles, in Samara (10 stations) – about 20 million rub. The total cost of installing two terminals and the necessary equipment in these cities could be about 260 million rubles, monthly expenses – 104 million rubles.

“Payment using biometrics in the metro is a very large-scale project. It requires large investments, and is also associated with technological risks – for example, the metro may lack the necessary infrastructure, it may be necessary to add lighting or install the Internet with the required channel capacity,” explains VisionLabs CEO Dmitry Markov to Kommersant. He adds that there may be difficulties in integrating the ticketing system with payment and biometrics systems, which could disrupt the launch of the overall system.

Director for work with partners of the RecFaces company (software development based on facial recognition technology) Irina Ostroukhova clarifies that equipment is a smaller component of the costs of such projects: “If the equipment for each station costs several million, then the deployment of regional segments of the UBS (a single biometric system) is significantly more expensive and consists of the cost of registry servers, information security tools and software. The implementation of such projects is quite possible, but the timing, in our opinion, is very optimistic.”

Nikita Korolev, Alexey Zhabin