Till December first week of this year 27,000 National Common Mobility Cards cards have been issued.
National Common Mobility Cards (NCMC) users are reporting that most metro station scanners cannot read the cards. Satyam Gupta, a daily commuter at the M G Road metro station complained, “Almost every time, whenever I try scanning the NCMC cards the reader either takes too much time or doesn’t scan at all. Then I have to contact the customer care counter.”
However, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) said the problem was resolved three months ago. Venugopal, Additional Chief Engineer and in charge of NCMC cards, said, “In the initial stage, we received many complaints about the cards not being detected, following which we changed the vendor who distributed these cards and the problem was sorted three months earlier, this October.”
The NCMC were introduced in India in 2019 by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MHUA) to offer a unified payment platform for commuters across the country.
Sahil, a NCMC card user said, “While the cards are intended for use across all modes of transport, only the metro rail company of the country currently accepts them.”
Srivas Rajagopalan, Executive Assistant Public Relations Officer (PRO) of BMRCL said, “The BMRCL Management is ready to incorporate other transport departments but they have not yet initiated the process of adoption of NCMC cards.”
Priyanka, Chief Systems Manager at Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), said that NCMC cards will not be implemented soon. “We may implement NCMC cards when the ongoing tender gets over and a new tender is called for ticketing in buses.” Said Priyanka.
Venugopal further said, “Till now 27,000 thousand NCMC cards have been issued.” Commuters prefer metro cards over NCMC as the latter take more time to process in transaction and commuting.
The NCMC cards issued in Mumbai can be used for contactless payments in buses, metro, and other NCMC-compliant services. This is the first successful interoperable transaction by NCMC cards in India.
Traffic and mobility expert, Prof.M.N. Sreehari, explained that the introduction of the NCMC aims to enable the use of a single card for various purposes all over the country. He said, “It can be used across various modes of transportation such as buses, auto-rickshaws and at locations like malls, movie theatres, railway stations, and airports. Instead of people having to carry multiple cards, they can conveniently use a single card. It is easier to manage and it is valid across India.”
Regarding the concern over NCMC cards being unreadable at metro stations, Sreehari suggests, “Once NCMC cards gain widespread adoption, and the rules and regulations are fixed, they will automatically be stored in the system, ensuring seamless functioning everywhere.”
He added, “Most people are aware of the NCMCs but only a few are aware of how they function.”
