One nation, one mobility card: Everything you need to know about NCMC

New Delhi, Dec 29: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched the ambitious National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) service for the Delhi Metro's Airport Express Line and stressed on the need for a unified technological interface to be used across services for furthering the development of the nation.

NCMC can be used at all transit locations making all new metro and transit payments interoperable via one card.

This latest inauguration falls under the umbrella of the Prime Minister's 'One Nation One Card' initiative.

"The card was launched with the idea that commuters would have integrated access to all public transports. This one card will help them save the time they spend standing in queue for tickets," PM Modi said.

The five-member committee under Nilekani which presented the idea of NCMC proposed a host of measures, including all payments by the government to citizens through the digital mode, to reduce the number of cash transactions in the country.

Here is all about NCMC

1. NCMC will allow passengers with RuPay debit card, issued in the last 18 months by 23 banks, including SBI, UCO Bank, Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank etc, to be swiped for Metro travel. "This facility will become available on the entire Delhi Metro network by 2022," a DMRC spokesperson said.

2. NCMC service is slated to cover the entire 400km stretch of Delhi Metro.

3. NCMC is an automatic fare collection system. It will turn smartphones into an inter-operable transport card that commuters can use eventually to pay for Metro, bus and suburban railways services.

4. To make AFC compliant indigenous gates for metro stations the government has engaged Bharat Electronics Limited. Eventually, all Metro stations will be fitted with AFC gates.

5. Banks mandated by the department of financial services have been asked to make their debit cards NCMC compliant, to ensure availability of service.