PM launches common mobility card

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched 'One Nation One Card', national common mobility card in Ahmedabad on Monday.

The card will ease in making payment for travel on any mode of transportation including bus, suburban railways and metro across the country.

The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) came out with the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) Program to enable seamless travel by different metros and other transport systems across the country besides retail shopping and purchases.

“The customer can use this single card for payments across all segments including metro, bus, suburban railways, toll, parking, smart city and retail. The stored value on card supports offline transaction across all travel needs with minimal financial risk to involved stakeholders. The service area feature of this card supports operator specific applications e.g. monthly passes, season tickets etc,” said a statement from the Ministry.

Roll-out of the card and a new feature in all credit and debit cards issued by banks will help people to use them either in PoS machines at ticket counters or use them like metro smart cards to travel, said the Ministry.

All new credit or debit cards issued by most banks have the National Common Mobility Card feature to make payments for their travel, said an official.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in January this year had conducted a pilot project of using indigenously designed automatic fare collection counters (AFCs) which can read these cards for seamless entry and exit at stations. With the all new metro rail networks using these new AFCs the new mobility cards will be useful.

Till now India used to depend on foreign companies to develop this card. With now such cards indigenously developed, we can save huge money by avoiding paying royalty, said the official.