MMRDA waits endlessly as Centre drags heels on common travel card

MMRDA waits endlessly as Centre drags heels on common travel card

FPJ BureauUpdated: Friday, May 31, 2019, 09:43 PM IST
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Mumbai : With the burgeoning network of transportation in Mumbai, the city is still far from achieving complete integration of all its transport modes and making the travel seamless and convenient. In a bid to integrate the ticketing system in the city, the Centre has already mooted National Common Mobility Card in April 2012, but it’s still in model stage pushing behind the plan of the state government body to bring an integrated card system.

Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, working on providing seamless travel to commuters in MMR in terms of ticketing integration, is awaiting information on whether the Centre’s plan is moving ahead or not. Interestingly, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis too mentioned about an integrated ticketing system for all mode of transports in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

“We are currently waiting for a word from the Centre as they are also developing a national card. If we know what’s the status on it, we can decide our course of action,” said UPS Madan, Metro-politan Commissioner, MMRDA.

According to senior officials of MMRDA, Memorandum of Understanding between M/s UTIITSL & MMRDA has been signed on 16th January, 2014 to implement this integrated card in MMR. MMRDA had planned that initially, Mumbai Metro and Monorail Corridor Phase and BEST will be integrated and later it will be extended to the other transport agencies.

In April 2012, the Ministry of Urban Development went forward and created the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) for tickets for suburban train, buses, metro, Monorail and even auto and taxi fares. The card was also supposed to have a special provision to swipe it for parking and toll charges, but the efforts failed.

Union Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu 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. Following the committee’s recommendations, Naidu has approved ‘EMV Open Loop Card with stored value’.

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