How convenient it would be if you could use all the public transport facilities by using just one card! What if you can buy a train ticket or Metro rail ticket or a city bus ticket and do shopping by using just one travel card! This would be such a relief for most of us as it will provide for a seamless travel system. Recently, Delhi had launched a project under which one can buy a DTC bus ticket using Delhi Metro Card. The initiative was received well but technical hiccups have made it suffer. Many times the card is not accepted by the DTC ticket machine. However, these are initial steps towards the 'One Nation, One Card' policy and these kinds of issues can be rectified going ahead.

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Public Transport is extensively used across India as the economical and convenient mode of commuting for all classes of society. Cash continues to be the most preferred mode of fare payments across public transport.

On March 4, PM Narendra Modi has launched 'One Nation, One Card' for transport mobility at a function in Ahmedabad. The Indigenous Automatic Fare Collection System based on One Nation One Card Model i.e. National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) is the first of its kind in India.

India’s First Indigenously Developed Payment Eco-system for transport consisting of NCMC Card, SWEEKAR (Swachalit Kiraya: Automatic Fare Collection System) and SWAGAT (Swachalit Gate) is based on NCMC Standards.

"These are bank-issued cards on Debit/Credit/Prepaid card product platform. The customer may use this single card for payments across all segments including metro, bus, suburban railways, toll, parking, smart city and retail. 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 government has said.

Ministry of Housing &  Urban Affairs has brought to the fore the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) to enable seamless travel by different metros and other transport systems across the country besides retail shopping and purchases.

"The card will address the challenges associated with the cash payment e.g. cash handling, revenue leakages, cash reconciliation etc. Various initiatives have been taken by transit operators to automate & digitize the fare collection using Automatic Fare Collection System (AFC). The introduction of closed-loop cards issued by these operators helped to digitize the fare collection to a significant extent. However, the restricted usability of these payment instruments limits the digital adoption by customers," it added.

AFC System (gates, readers/validators, backend infrastructure etc) is the core of any transit operator to automate the fare collection process. The major challenge associated with AFC system implementation in India till now is the lack of indigenous solution provider. Till now, AFC systems deployed at various Metros are from foreign players. There was a need to develop indigenous standards and AFC system under the Make in India initiative. The National Payments Corporation of India, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing and Bharat Electronics Limited had come together to provide indigenous NCMC ecosystem.

With BEL producing Gates & Reader, India has joined the very few elite nations who have indigenous capacity on gate and reader production.

The customers need not carry multiple cards for different usage. Further, the super quick contactless transactions will improve the seamless experience. This will also help in higher digital payments penetration, savings on closed loop card lifecycle management cost and reduced operating cost.

With NCMC Ecosystem, Banks will get access to segments which are highly driven by cash but stickiness in nature. NCMC Ecosystem will further help the government in digitization of low-value payments and reduced cost for the entire ecosystem.

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In order to showcase the entire NCMC ecosystem for digital fare collection, the complete AFC system has been deployed in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) across few stations for field trial purpose. Under this pilot, NCMC compliant gates have been deployed at various stations of DMRC and cards have been issued by multiple banks to the users.

Now the priority of the government should be to issue the NCMC Card and deploy the indigenous fare collection system on a mission mode to expand its reach and usage. The pilot project should be started simultaneously in every city which has wide usages of Metro and suburban rail system. The government can also have offers clubbed with the card just like Delhi Metro or Noida Metro card which collects 10% less fare from those using the smart cards.