One card for bus, metro and supermarkets - Does it work? | National Common Mobility Card

NCMC | National Common Mobility Card | Pan India Mobility

What if there were one single card that you could use to travel by metro, by bus and to pay at petrol stations, tollgates, supermarkets, restaurants? Sounds great, right? But does it really work?
Every metro city in the country faces the problem of overcrowded roads and too many private vehicles. And the solution to this problem is the use of public transport. Taking a bus or a metro to your destinations sounds easy, but it is in fact quite a hassle because of the issue of last mile connectivity. Most people end up having to take multiple modes of transport to get to their destination.
In Bengaluru, there are only 2 metro lines spanning around 74km. Getting to any spot that is beyond the scope of these 74km can prove to be incredibly difficult, considering that the fleet of buses is also grossly insufficient. For a lot of people, the best option is to hail a cab or take their own vehicle.
One of the solutions that came up to combat this problem is the One Nation One Card Scheme - a unified mode of payment for all modes of public transport, and for debit transactions in retail outlets. Around 19 cities in the country issue this card, and the card issued in any of these cities can be used in any other. This is the National Common Mobility Card.
Launched in 2019, this card, issued by different banks in different cities, is supposed to work in all local modes of public transport and in retail outlets like petrol stations, tollgates and supermarkets.
In Mumbai, the scheme has been enforced almost entirely. The card works in buses and in Metro trains, and it works in retail transactions. Its implementation in local trains is pending. But what about the other metro cities, like Chennai and Bengaluru? How well does this card work? Does it serve the purposes for which it was intended?
Rukmini Ravishankar investigates.

#ncmc #lastmile #metro #debitcard #buspass #npci #realitycheck
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