Bhopal City Link Limited (BCLL) will offer the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) in Bhopal. With the expected start of Bhopal and Indore metro in September, it is likely that the Madhya Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MPMRCL) would also offer NCMC.
Simply put, cash left in a Delhi metro card could be utilised in Bhopal transport and vice versa. Broad idea is the open loop card would be usable at metro and bus transit along with toll, parking and other value merchant payments too.
“BCLL intends to implement NCMC Cards and extend benefits of modern payment systems to the commuters of Bhopal, encourage cashless transactions and boost ridership,” said BCLL and Bhopal smart city development corporation limited (BSCDCL) CEO, Gourav Benal.
In 2019, during his visit to Bhopal smart city office, NIti Aayog chairman Amitabh Kant talked about the ‘One Nation One Card’ initiative aimed at making end-to-end travel for citizens seamless and convenient. Simply put, one card that could be used in Delhi or Mumbai metro and a bus service in Bhopal.
As a MoHUA policy transit payments should be made interoperable. The challenge lies in card issuance, transaction acquiring, supporting common passes across all operators, offline payments and revenue sharing with operators.
BCLL has already begun the process of a new Integrated Transit Management System (ITMS). Currently only two of the four operators of BCLL with 227 buses are NCMC compatible. 142 other buses under two other operators.
For NCMC to become a true integerator, BMC and other agencies handling state and national highway tolls would have to come on the same platform.
