Few months after the Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray launched India’s first ever National Common Mobility Card (NCMC), it has come to light that it can be used to purchase local and outstation train tickets from next year.
This move will make accessibility to the city’s public transport hassle-free for commuters.
According to reports, Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) is in the final stages of processing a tender for the introduction of NCMC cards for the city’s local train network.
Tenders for the installation of the system required for the card will be floated in August. And by January they plan to have servers that will connect other NCMC cards with system. With this, the card is expected to be introduced in March 2023. Commuters with the BEST card will also be able to purchase local train tickets then, said a senior MRVC official. Additionally, passengers will be able to take out season passes as well on the NCMC cards.
It will act like a debit card which can be used across all public transport in the country and the ticket money for buses, metro, railways and other public transport will be deducted from the card wallet.
Meanwhile, citing complexity in the current ticketing systems of local trains with single, return journeys and monthly season passes, the MRVC plans to have a separate NCMC card.
Passenger associations have stated that instead of different NCMC cards, a common card should be introduced. Further, Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) is also working on introducing a common card for passengers travelling onboard outstation trains.
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