National Common Mobility Card

Indian interoperable transport card

  • Contactless smart card
  • EMV
OperatorNational Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)ManagerMinistry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA)CurrencyINRValidity
  • Some public transport systems
  • Toll roads
  • ATMs
  • RuPay points of sale
Variants
  • Prepaid card
  • RuPay debit card
  • RuPay credit card
Websitemohua.gov.in

National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) is an inter-operable transport card conceived by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs of the Government of India. It was launched on 4 March 2019. The transport card enables the user to pay for travel, toll duties (toll tax), retail shopping and withdraw money.

It is enabled through the RuPay card mechanism.[1] The NCMC card is issuable as a prepaid, debit, or credit RuPay card from partnered banks such as the State Bank of India, Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, and others.[2]

History

In late 2010, the Government of India envisioned a scheme wherein seamless access could be granted to public transport networks. The system, which later came to be known as Interoperable Fare Management System (IFMS), aimed to let passengers pay across different public transport platforms using one system. This was created as an effort to bring together the public transport system of the country under one umbrella. By making it accessible to every individual in every city, the government aimed to increase ease of access for public transport. The project is also structured in such a way so as to include customers across a wide variety of socio-economic strata. An additional focus was also put on reducing the transaction time to the minimum, so as to make the payment experience as seamless as possible. It is also structured in such a way so as to reduce the financial risk to the stakeholders involved in the effort. It is designated as an EMV-based Open Loop Payments system.[3]

The NCMC is an indigenously made product, and is a part of the Make In India project. It was first conceptualised in 2006 as part of the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP).[4] A previous attempt to develop a similar national mobility card led to the development of the More Card. Given its lack of seamless functioning across the nation, Venkaiah Naidu, the then Minister of Urban Development, set up a committee to recommend a card which is inter-operable across different transport systems in the country.

The urban development ministry brought in the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) with the task of management, clearing and settlement of payments, simulating cards and terminals and maintenance of network.[5] Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has created the reader prototype.[4]

On 8 April 2019, The Economic Times reported that Visa was seeking to issue National Common Mobility Cards.[6] Visa announced that it had launched specifications to support the NCMC on 13 May 2019.[7] Visa is ready with the specifications to start issuing cards on the NCMC network and has started discussions with banks to issue their cards on NCMC as well, but it will take some time for the cards to start getting rolled out in the market.[8] Mastercard stated on 22 May 2019 that 15 Indian banks were at "various stages of signing up" for its NCMC.[9] Mastercard is all set to join the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) scheme, just weeks after its biggest competitor Visa said it planned to enter the programme as per Vikas Varma, senior vice-president, account management for South Asia at Mastercard.[10]

Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) is planning to implement the ambitious scheme in Mumbai suburban railway network in a step towards an integrated ticketing system (ITS).[11]

In certain cities such as Bengaluru and Chennai, adoption of NCMC by users of transport systems was slow due to a lack of integration across different modes of transport and parking payments.[12][13][14] At the end of 2022, Kolkata had still not seen NCMC deployment in any of its transport modes.[15]

In July 2023, Government of India directed banks to issue NCMC-compliant cards by default to customers.[16]

Technical details

Acceptance

The following public transport systems in the country currently accept fare payments via the National Common Mobility Card, with many more public transport operators across the country in various stages of planning/implementation to accept NCMC as a mode of payment over the next few years.

List of Transport Systems Accepting National Common Mobility Card
State / Region City Operator Transport system Acceptance Card Name Issuing Bank Commissioned Comments
Delhi NCR Delhi Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Delhi Metro Complete Network Paytm Transit Card Paytm 28 December 2020[17] All stations have been retrofitted with NCMC readers.[18]
Noida -
Greater Noida 		Noida Metro Rail Corporation Noida Metro Complete Network State Bank of India 28 December 2021[17]
Goa Statewide Kadamba Transport Corporation Goa Statewide Bus system Complete Network One Goa One Card Paytm 21 December 2021[19]
Gujarat Ahmedabad Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation Limited Ahmedabad Metro Rail system Complete Network 4 March 2019[20][21]
Surat Surat Metro Rail system N.A. N.A. Under Construction. NCMC will be accepted after the system opens
Haryana Statewide Haryana Roadways Partial 13 December 2023[22]
Karnataka Bengaluru Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited Bengaluru's Namma Metro Rail system Complete Network One Nation One Card RBL Bank 21 October 2021[23] All Phase 1 stations have been retrofitted with NCMC readers. All Phase 2 stations have NCMC readers from day one.
Kerala Kochi Kochi Metro Rail Limited Kochi Metro Kochi 1 Card Axis Bank
Maharashtra Mumbai Metropolitan Region Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Mumbai City Bus Transit system Complete Network Chalo Card YES Bank 25 April 2022[24]
Maha Mumbai Metro Operation Corporation Limited Mumbai Metro Rail system Complete Network Mumbai 1 Metro Card State Bank of India 19 January 2023
Mumbai Metro One Private Limited One Mumbai Card Axis Bank 28 June 2021
Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport Navi Mumbai City Bus Transit system Partial - 25% of routes March 2019[25] NMMT began rolling out NCMC across all routes in August 2022.[26]
Nagpur Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited Nagpur Metro Nagpur Metro Maha Card State Bank of India
Pune Pune Metro One Pune Card HDFC Bank
Madhya Pradesh Bhopal Madhya Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Limited Bhopal Metro Rail system N.A. N.A. Under Construction. NCMC will be accepted after the system opens.[27]
Indore Indore Metro Rail system N.A. N.A. Under Construction. NCMC will be accepted after the system opens.[28]
Tamil Nadu Chennai Chennai Metro Rail Limited Chennai Metro Rail system Complete Network Singara Chennai Card State Bank of India 14 April 2023[29]
Telangana Hyderabad Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited Hyderabad Metro Complete Network Paytm Wallet Transit Card Paytm Payments Bank 24 August 2023 (2023-August-24)[30]
Rajasthan Jaipur Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation Limited Jaipur Metro Rail system N.A. N.A. System is being upgraded to be NCMC compliant
Uttar Pradesh Noida Noida Metro Rail Corporation Noida Metro NMRC City1 Card State Bank of India
Lucknow Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Lucknow Metro Rail system N.A. N.A. System is being upgraded to be NCMC compliant
Agra Agra Metro Rail system N.A. N.A. Under Construction. NCMC will be accepted after the system opens.
Kanpur Kanpur Metro Complete network Kanpur Metro State Bank of India 4 April 2023[31]

References

  1. ^ "PM launches 'One Nation One Card'". The Hindu. PTI. 5 March 2019. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  2. ^ "The RuPay Contactless Card with National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) support will be available with over 25 banks including Canara Bank, SBI, PNB and others | Gadgets Now". Gadget Now. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  3. ^ VK, Anirudh (21 May 2019). "Behind The Tech: NPCI And RuPay's Common Mobility Card Explained". Curious Dose. Archived from the original on 21 August 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  4. ^ a b "Pan-India mobility card that can be used for transport across country launched". Hindustan Times. 4 March 2019. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  5. ^ "UD issues Smart National Common Mobility Card model - Times of India". The Times of India. 4 September 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  6. ^ Bhakta, Pratik (8 April 2019). "Visa set to board govt's mobility card". The Economic Times. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  7. ^ Nandi, Shreya (13 May 2019). "Visa launches government's National Common Mobility Card". Mint. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  8. ^ www.ETtech.com (8 April 2019). "Visa set to board govt's mobility card - ETtech". The Economic Times. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  9. ^ Bhakta, Pratik (22 May 2019). "Mastercard may soon put mobility card in its wallet". The Economic Times. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
  10. ^ www.ETtech.com (22 May 2019). "Mastercard set to join govt's One Nation One Card project - ETtech". The Economic Times. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  11. ^ "Mumbai local trains likely to get Centre's 'One Nation, One Card' ticket system first". Latest Indian news, Top Breaking headlines, Today Headlines, Top Stories | Free Press Journal. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  12. ^ "Few takers for Metro's common mobility cards". Bangalore Mirror. 26 September 2023. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  13. ^ Bureau, The Hindu (15 July 2023). "Three months on, commuters still can't use common mobility cards at Chennai Metro parking lot". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  14. ^ B.P, Darshan Devaiah (22 August 2023). "Only 5,000 National Common Mobility Cards sold in Bengaluru in 6 months". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  15. ^ "Smart mobility card in West Bengal soon". The Times of India. 2 December 2022. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  16. ^ Desk, DH Web. "Centre directs banks to issue cards with NCMC as default option". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  17. ^ a b "Delhi Metro: National Common Mobility Card facility introduced on Airport Express Line; see features". The Financial Express. 28 December 2020. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  18. ^ "National Common Mobility Card | Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC)". www.delhimetrorail.com. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  19. ^ "Goa: Soon, pay for KTC bus ticket in digital mode | Goa News - Times of India". The Times of India. TNN. 22 December 2021. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  20. ^ "PM Modi Launches National Common Mobility Card In Ahmedabad". NDTV.com. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  21. ^ "Paytm launches transit card via payments bank arm". ETBFSI.com. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  22. ^ "National Common Mobility Card facility launched in Faridabad". The Tribune. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  23. ^ "National mobility card for Bangalore Metro from Oct 21". The New Indian Express. 9 October 2021. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  24. ^ Somit Sen (23 April 2022). "Pan-India BEST card to roll out on Monday | Mumbai News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  25. ^ Mahale, Ajeet (12 March 2019). "NMMT unveils 'Navi Card' for bus tickets, other payments". The Hindu. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  26. ^ "Now, Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport commuters can swipe debit, credit cards to buy bus tickets". Hindustan Times. 11 August 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  27. ^ "MPMRCL to adopt National Common Mobility Card for Bhopal & Indore Metro Ticketing | Metro Rail Today". Metro Rail Today: Gateway to Rail & Metro Industry. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  28. ^ "Indore: With just one National Common Mobility Card, you can ride in any of the country's Metros". Free Press Journal. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  29. ^ Bureau, The Hindu (14 April 2023). "Chennai Metro launches National Common Mobility Card, 1.8% charges will apply on recharge". The Hindu. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  30. ^
    • Network, N. D. M. (23 December 2021). "Paytm Payment Bank Brings Paytm Transit Card, Know All Details". Retrieved 26 March 2022.
    • Livemint (29 November 2021). "Paytm Payments Bank launches Paytm Transit Card". mint. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
    • Jose, Donita (24 August 2023). "Navigating Hyderabad with ease: A new card for seamless travel | Hyderabad News – Times of India". Times of India. Hyderabad. Retrieved 7 October 2023. L&T Metro selects Paytm as partner bank for transactions
  31. ^ "Travel to become smarter as CS inaugurates Kanpur Metro NCMC; see features". The Times of India. 28 December 2020.