Good news for commuters! PM Modi launches 'One Nation, One Card' for Pan-India transport mobility; 10 things to know

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced the launch of an indigenously-developed National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) for people to pay multiple kinds of travel charges including metro services and toll tax across the country.

By : ABP News Bureau | Updated at : 05 Mar 2019 08:27 AM (IST)

One Nation One Card: PM Modi launches NCMC card for Pan-India transport mobility; top 10 highlights Good news for commuters! PM Modi launches 'One Nation, One Card' for Pan-India transport mobility; 10 things to know

NCMC card will function on ‘One Nation One Card’ model. (Image: Twitter/ @Secretary_MoHUA)

Narendra Modi launched the indigenously-developed NCMC card on Monday

The cards can be issued by all public and private banks

NCMC card comes under PM Modi’s ambitious Digital India initiative

New Delhi: Have you ever thought of having a single card that could take care of all your travel needs? If yes, then here you go! Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced the launch of an indigenously-developed National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) for people to pay multiple kinds of travel charges including metro services and toll tax across the country. PM Modi launched the NCMC card while inaugurating the first phase metro services in Ahmedabad on March 4. Dubbed as 'One Nation One Card', the inter-operable transport card would enable the holders to pay all their travel charges and even retail shopping and withdrawing money. The newly launched NCMC card comes under PM Modi’s ambitious Digital India initiative to push the country towards being a cashless economy. Prime Minister also inaugurated a 6.5 km stretch of first phase metro connecting Vastral to Apparel Park Area in Ahmedabad. Here are top 10 highlights of the all-new mobility card launched by PM Modi: 1. Just like any other debit or credit card, the NCMC card will function on ‘One Nation One Card’ model and can be used to make payments across public transport. 2. The NCMC card runs of RuPay card and would allow the holders to pay for their bus travel, toll taxes, parking charges, retail shopping and even withdraw money. In simple terms, the RuPay card has been merged with the mobility card. 3. The Union Ministry of Urban Affairs along with various banks and state government has been working on the launch of NCMC card since 2006. "Since systems were made by different players, a card issued in one city did not work in another city. Thus, we asked various ministries, departments and even banks to resolve this issue," PM Modi said while launching the mobility card. 4. 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. 5. The three digital payment initiative together will further boost the use of the national mobility card across the country without any conflict with existing point-of-sale (PoS) machines. 6. The cards can be issued by all public and private banks the same way credit, debit, and prepaid cards are issued. An official release said that NCMC cards are bank-issued cards on debit/credit/pre-paid card product platform. 7. “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,” the official release read further. 8. "Till now, AFC systems deployed at various Metros are from foreign players. In order to avoid the vendor lock-in and create an inter-operable system, there was a need to develop indigenous standards and AFC system under Make in India initiative," the release stated. 9. The release also stated that in order to ensure seamless travel across metros and other transport systems, in addition to retail shopping and purchases, the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) came out with the NCMC program. 10. Even the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government had in December launched a similar mobility card for travelling in metro trains, Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and cluster buses. These cards, however, cannot be used for paying parking fees, at toll booths or for retail services.

Published at : 05 Mar 2019 08:27 AM (IST)