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You could travel by any metro across the country and enjoy retail shopping using the same card soon.
The Ministry of Urban Development has come out with a Smart National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) model to enable seamless travel by different metros and other transport systems across the country, besides retail shopping and purchases, an official statement said.
The Union Minister for Urban Development, M Venkaiah Naidu, has approved the ‘EMV Open Loop Card with stored value’ model and has decided to task the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) with indigenous development and management of clearing and settlement of payments, simulating cards, terminals and network, a support base of vendors for providing certified tools, cards, terminals and other services.
Naidu had set up a committee last year to recommend a card which is inter-operable across different transport systems in the country and which can also be used as a credit/debit card. This committee had the representatives of National Informatics Centre (NIC), Centre for Development of Advance Computing (C-DAC), Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), National Payment Corporation of India (NCPI) and the Ministry of Finance.
Globally, there is no nationwide common card except in Singapore wherein inter-operability is confined to city only. The committee, hence, recommended EMV Open Loop Card with stored value for use across the country.
"This Smart Common Mobility Payment Card addresses the deficiencies associated with other cards being used in Singapore and other countries. This meets travel needs based on stored value of money and also enables account-based retail applications," the statement added.
C-DAC will develop the standards and hardware for Metro gates/validators along with related ecosystems. The Ministry has also approved funding of Rs 4.47 crore in this regard. The certification and authentication mechanism will be developed by NPCI or any other government agency.
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