After BEST, railways also has speed up the process of implementing an automatic fare collection system through National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) in its suburban section of MMR. The Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC), the planning and execution body for railway projects, is working on this project.
On Mumbai’s suburban railway network, which currently ferries around 68 lakh commuters daily the MRVC has prepared a comprehensive plan for implementation of the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC). The plan includes setting up of infrastructure for use of mobility cards.
"Consultant for the preparation of technical specification, financial model and tender management for the implementation of NCMC based automatic fare collection system on Mumbai suburban railway network of Western and Central Railway has already been appointed and first meeting will be scheduled on Wednesday " said a senior officer of Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) on Tuesday. In BEST, this system has already started; as per BEST officials currently around a thousand people are using RuPay debit card, which is valid at most NCMC-compliant establishments across the country.
'We are aiming to complete this project as soon as possible. As per initial plan we are going to install a card reader as all entry points'' said an official . Asked about the installation of automatic gates like the metro, he said "It is yet to be decided but in starting under this system people will be able to use the existing system too.''
"Commuters will need to tap the card (which will be installed at entry points of railway stations) at the starting and destination points and money will be deducted from the card as per journey and a ticket will be generated accordingly. For the ticket-checking, machines will be provided to the ticket checkers." further added officials
Asked about the modality of the system, a senior officer of MRVC said, "talks with several financial institutions are on , it will be decided through a transparent tendering process."
