You can now travel across the country with a single card
With an objective to provide seamless urban mobility to commuters across the country, the Center has launched India’s first indigenously-developed National Common Mobility Card (NCMC).
The card is launched by Prime Minister Naredra Modi in Ahmedabad on 4th March 2019. Dubbed as ‘One Nation-One Card’, the inter-operable transport card would allow holders to pay for their bus travel, toll taxes, parking charges, retail shopping and withdraw cash. It is said that Union ministry of urban affairs have been working on it since 2006, when it was envisaged as part of the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP).
“With this ‘one-of-its-kind’ card, the country is no longer required to be dependent on foreign technology,” said the PM on launching the card.
“Now, we have this ‘Made in India’ card. Only a select few countries have this technology of ‘One Nation One Card’,” Modi added.
PM Modi also launched India’s first indigenously developed payment ecosystem for transport, consisting of NCMC, an automatic fare-collection system (AFC) called ‘Sweekar’, and a gate and card-reader system ‘Swagat’. The three together will enable the use of the national mobility card across the country without a conflict with existing point-of-sale (PoS) machines, said an official from the ministry.
“The gate and reader prototype has been made by government owned Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). Translating PM’s vision of One Nation One Card it will work seamlessly across Metro, Bus rapid transit (BRT), city bus, suburban rail, parking, toll etc. All Debit/Credit Cards will be NCMC compliant,” said Durga Shanker Mishra, secretary, Ministry of Urban Affairs.
The mobility card can be issued in the form of debit, credit or prepaid card of a partner bank. It is to any RuPay debit/credit card, which will be available with more than 25 banks, including the State Bank of India (SBI).
The card offers cash-back on bill payments and more than thousand other offers. A cardholder can also avail 5 per cent cash back at ATMs and 10 per cent cash back at merchant outlets while travelling abroad.
A pilot project for the NCM ecosystem has launched by the government with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on 31st January 2019.
According to DMRC sources, the first-level trials have been successfully completed in collaboration with CDAC, BEL, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and State Bank of India.
