The National Common Mobility Card Launched To Achieve The ‘One Nation, One Card’ Vision was launched by PM Narendra Modi which was released in December 2020 at Delhi’s Magenta Line Metro during the inauguration of India’s premier driverless metro train by PM Modi. The card, which will be run by RuPay in partnership with many other banks to offer payment support, is expected to revolutionize the way we travel and make payments in India.
This one single card is expected to give easy integrated access to travelers across the country. It was touted to be in line with the driving goal of the union government to achieve “minimum government, maximum governance” or in other words, shrinkage of systems and procedures to strengthen the visions of “Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat”.
First launched in March 2019 during the inauguration of the first phase of Ahmedabad Metro, this indigenously developed card was launched with the tagline of ‘One Nation One Card’, the integration of this card with transport means in the country is expected to be a major step towards achieving a smart system. The card provides to the people, the comfort of traveling to any place, in any means of transport with ease.
Conceived by the Nandan Nilekani-led committee under RBI, the main aim of this card is to make the payment system easier for all modes of public transport. This will eliminate various travel-related issues such as the need for standing in ticket windows in buses, trains, and other transit places.
With the help of this card, citizens will be able to make payments through a number of segments such as transits (eg. bus fare, metro) as well as para-transits (tolls, parking), smart cities, ATMs, and also for retail shopping. With the introduction of a single card, users do not have to struggle for getting change at the ticket counters. This card will provide increased mobility and a seamless travel experience to the customers.
This will act as an automatic fare collection system and it can turn your smartphone into an interoperable transport card that people can use to pay their metro, bus, and other service fares that fall under the scheme. With the help of this, mobiles can be used while entering or exiting the metro stations through AFC (Automatic fare collection).
At present, the RuPay Contactless Card with NCMC is now available with almost 25 banks, including SBI and PNB as debit, credit, or prepaid cards. A person interested to possess this card, will have to contact their bank for the same. The card can also be issued by the PayTM payments bank.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs of the Government of India (MoHUA) has further informed that there is the provision of storing money on the card (in the Global Wallet or Card Wallet). NCMC will be upgraded on the entire Delhi Metro network by 2022.
The stored value in NCMC supports the transactions across all travel requirements on offline mode with minimal financial risk to the users. It has operator-specific applications like monthly passes, season tickets, etc in its service area.
The existing Delhi Metro tokens (currently not being used due to Covid-19 pandemic guidelines), smart cards, QR Codes, etc., will continue to remain in use for Metro commuters. So far operating only on the Airport Express Line of the Delhi Metro, it is expected to be all over the Delhi Metro Network by 2022.
Coming to the security aspect of transactions using this card, this card is secured with EMV Technology. EMV is one of the globally available and adopted technologies for safeguarding transactions against fraud. EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard, and Visa. It is essentially a global standard for debit and credit cards (chip-based cards) that ensures the security of payments at various point of sale (POS) terminals.
Many other states such as Maharashtra are also taking steps to include this card into their state transportation systems. The Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation that executes suburban rail improvement projects in the city sought the approval of the Railway Board for NCMC for Mumbai soon after the card was first announced. It aimed at NCM roll-out through public-private participation.
Anyone interested in availing of the benefits of this card can easily approach the nearest bank where they have an account. The only eligibility criteria for this card are-
- Applicant must be a permanent resident of India
- Applicant must have a bank account
The application process is as easy as visiting your bank which offers this card and filling out NCMC Application Form and duly attaching all essential documents. Following are the set of identity proofs and official documents that will have to be furnished at the time of application-
- Aadhar Card
- Ration card
- Proof of identification
- Residence certificate
- Passport size photograph
- Mobile number
The card, which is essentially a contactless smart card released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) aims to cut down paper tickets and save time for commuters with the NCMC. Designed to be in line with India’s Make In India scheme as it is designed with indigenously developed technology, unlike most other cards that were in use until now.
