The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) is planning to introduce a Common Mobility Card (CMC) at the Bengaluru’s metro stations of Baiyappanahalli and Kempegowda. For that, BMRCL will install a pair of upgraded Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) gates at these stations in the coming four months.
Common Mobility Card To Improve Mobility Within Bengaluru
The BMRCL wants to improve mobility within the city by implementing the Common Mobility Card system. This new system will allow the citizens to travel on Namma Metro and Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) just by using one card.
The BMRCL will implement this system on a pilot basis at Kempegowda and Baiyappanahalli metro stations. If the pilot program runs successfully, the corporation will install the new upgraded Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) gates by the end of September.
On the basis of the success of these common cards in these two stations, the corporation will implement the same Common Mobility System across all the metro stations in Bengaluru.
According to a senior BMRCL officer, the presentation regarding the implementation of the common mobility system across India was made recently in New Delhi by the collaboration of Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC).
New Gates To Be Installed After Trial
The card that the Namma Metro is using currently is different from the proposed mobility card as both of them work on different technologies. That is why once the decision to implement is finalized, BMRCL will have to replace the AFC gates and install new gates that support the technology used for the mobility cards.
According to the BMRCL PRO of Yashwant Chavan, “On a trial basis, we will implement the system in Baiyappanahalli and Kempegowda metro stations and in phase manner, we will start implementing the new card system in all the 40 metro stations.”
In its Phase 2 project to be inaugurated in 2022, Namma Metro will be implementing the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) system at all the 62 metro stations in Bengaluru.
The technology will be provided by BEL to BMRCL as well as BMTC. Both organizations will have to upgrade their existing software so that it supports each other’s cards. Instead of the gates, in the case of the bus, the conductors ticketing machine will identify the card and provide tickets.
