Bengaluru will soon have a common inter-operable smart card system for multiple urban transport systems in the city. Transports like the Namma Metro and the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation will only require a single card for traveling from April. This new card is said to be the first indigenously designed project in the country.
National Common Mobility Card
Good things for commuters as they do not have to wait in the long queues to buy tickets while using the metro. With this new system, commuters can travel continuously using one single card for the bus, metro and other transport modes in the future, without the trouble of carrying exact change.
The officials reported that these smart cards are known as the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) as launched by the Prime Minister in March 2019. A similar useful card, which was supposed to only work for the metro and the BMTC, was set to start in October 2019. But unfortunately, that plan was dropped in favor of the NCMC.
NCMC are bank-issued multiple-use Debit/Credit/Prepaid cards. These cards can work both online and offline, contactless and contact-mode transactions and are not limited to transport purposes.
Automatic fare collection (AFC) gates from April
The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) authorities have decided to start automatic fare collection (AFC) gates from April that will comply with the NCMC card. The model for the gates is designed by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) along with the Centre For Development Of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).
“We are establishing these new AFC gates in the new metro stations in the Kanakapura Road line which is the Green Line Reach 4 extension Yelachenahalli-Anjanapura line. Operations are expected to start from August in this line. The BMTC is also moving to build volume on its side. Slowly all existing metro stations will have the new AFC gates which would work with the single-use tokens, existing smart cards and NCMC cards,” IAS officer Ajay Seth, the Managing Director of BMRCL told.
