Month: April 2025

Indian Railways Should Get On The NCMC Bandwagon

One untapped market for the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) is Indian Railways, especially for suburban rail services.

Currently, buying tickets on Indian Railways happens across three forms – buying directly at the counter, paid with cash of UPI, buying it on one’s phone using the UTS app or buying it at an automated ticket vending machine (ATVM) using either a prepaid smart card or UPI. In the earlier days, IR also sold coupon booklets of coupons with varying denominations that the commuter would then validate using a coupon validating machine (CVM) which essentially stamped the date and time on the coupon. This was done away as the Railways wanted the entire system to be computerised.

The existing system has a lot of issues, but implementing the NCMC shouldn’t be difficult.

For starters, it must be noted that unlike its newer counterparts – metro rail – suburban rail predominantly operates using a proof-of-payment system. You buy the ticket before boarding. The system is not too different from buses – where NCMC is already operational across many cities – with the only difference being that in the bus, the ticket is bought on-board and for the train, it is off-board.

The simplest method for this would be to allow passengers to walk up to the existing ATVM, place their NCMC on the card slot and buy the ticket. There are two types of ATVMs, one which accepts UPI or the existing smart card and one – called the Cash/Smart Card Operated Ticketing Kiosk (which for some reason is abbreviated as CoTVM – which can accept coins and banknotes as well. Only the cash input system is different, otherwise they are identical in every other way. The booking interface itself is quite easy. The machine allows you to book tickets with the aforementioned smart card, recharge the card (with UPI or cash, depending on which machine it is), print a ticket booked with the UTS app (by entering the mobile number and four-digit ticket number) and platform tickets. Beyond this, for UPI transactions, you can book with three options. Fast booking allows you to book from a preselected list of top stations, book using the map allows you to select the stations from a map and the third option, all other stations, allows you to type the station name or code and book the ticket. For smart card users, for the entire process, the card is placed in a tray below the screen. Tell me why this system should not be accepting the NCMC.

The second option would be to allow NCMC cardholders to tap-in and tap-out, akin to an automated fare system. This system has partly been tried out in India before, nearly two decades ago, with the Go Mumbai smart card that was operational in Mumbai’s suburban trains and BEST buses nearly two decades ago. However, the Go Mumbai Card operated on a fixed-fare basis, meaning, it could only be used for a specific fare stage, both for buses and trains.

To explain, I had gone to apply for one in 2006-2007. The person behind the counter at the JVPD bus station asked me which bus I took and what the fare was. Now this was a problem. By default, I took 56 from Four Bungalows Market to Santacruz Post Office for ₹5. However, if a 38 came, I would board that for ₹7. If neither came, I’d walk to ESIC Nagar and take a 79, 33 or 241 to Santacruz Station for ₹5, a 355Ltd to Santacruz Post Office for ₹6, 200 or 222 to Santacruz Post Office for ₹7. Essentially, I had two parallel routes, each with different fares and stages. Plus, on weekends, I used to go for classes which meant I’d pay ₹3 in a 56 or a 221, but one was from Four Bungalows Market and the other from Juhu Versova Link Road. Pretty complicated? Not really. The card worked on only one route on one stage. The conductor merely checked whether it was valid for that stage or not. The same happened with the train. Passengers bought it for a certain trip, between Station A and Station B, for a particular class. They’d tap it at the validating machine at both stations.

Replicating this with the NCMC should not be difficult. However, due to volume of passengers – Mumbai alone has a daily ridership of 62 lakh – implementing an absolute automatic fare system with turnstiles would be difficult. Here, having NCMC holders swipe in and swipe out and different stations would require them to do it at both stations. Ticket checkers are usually present in high-traffic stations and can be given a machine locked into that station. Presenting the NCMC there should ideally validate the swipe out so that passengers don’t have to then swipe out. Not swiping in and popping up on the machine can automatically deduct the fare from the card. However, dispute resolution mechanisms should be put in place in case the entry swipe wasn’t captured due to any technical fault.

However, the situation gets complicated due to different classes. Suburban rail in India has two classes by default – second and first class – with Mumbai and now Chennai also having a third one in the form of air-conditioned trains. The only incumbent rapid transit system with multiple classes in India is the NCRTC’s Namo Bharat RapidX train where premium class passengers cross two turnstiles, one at the concourse level to enter the ticketed area and once again at the platform level to access the premium lounge and coach. This may not work well on suburban trains simple because there are multiple first class coaches spread across the train and the issue will be further compounded when trains of different lengths arrive on the platform. A secondary solution can be to set up a second machine inside the compartment itself or mounted on the exterior wall that can be tapped on entry. But given the crowds, how practical this can be, remains to be seen. If such a system is established, then it would require a separate machine for purchasing platform tickets as well. Nearly two decades ago, South Western Railway had installed ticket vending machines at the KSR Bengaluru City railway station to sell platform tickets. These German machines, built by Hectronic were coin operated, but fell into disuse when platform ticket fares went up and the coin size the machine was designed for was no longer being minted. An NCMC-enabled version is simple. Tap it and it just prints a ticket. Tap it mulitple times for multiple tickets.

However, since the NCMC in its current form doesn’t seem to support passes, season tickets would become problematic.

Allowing for the NCMC to be used to buy tickets using the ATVM, seems to be the best way to get the Indian Railways on to the NCMC bandwagon.

Featured Image: A generic NCMC being held up against a Western Railways AC Local in Mumbai (Image generated via Sora/ChatGPT/OpenAI)

Going Cashless On The Bus: Which Fares Better – NCMC Or UPI?

So, one interesting debate that has happened recently is the question of which is better on a bus – the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) or the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC).

Interestingly, a lot of people (who don’t seem to use public transport, as evident from their tone) believe that UPI is a far superior option. In fact, in one discussion on Twitter (I refuse to call it X), I was told by a self-described techbro that UPI is convenient as people have their phones handy and use UPI to buy chai and flowers, and specified that taking out the wallet to take out an additional card in a crowded bus was a burden and not advisable. Sure, but typing out my UPI PIN in front of 30 other people is kosher. Or making others wait while you enter your pin, and the transaction takes its time is absolutely alright.

But let us not digress. We’re now solely looking at which is better, NCMC or UPI. UPI is a great option if either you or the conductor does not have change (or cash for that matter) and you don’t have an NCMC as well. Conversely, if everyone is accepting NCMC and you have one, you can use it here too, right?

Now, in order to test this hypothesis (if you can call it one that is), I used both NCMC and UPI to buy tickets. I used the NCMC at two places: BEST in Mumbai and MTC in Chennai and UPI at two places: BMTC in Bengaluru and MTC in Chennai.

Note: If you want to buy a bus ticket on BEST with your phone, then you’ll need the Chalo app. You can buy tickets, passes and more on the app. Gandharva has covered it here: Chalo, Aage Badho: Getting Familiar With BEST’s New App For Tickets

Now, coming back to NCMC vs UPI.

Let’s start with NCMC. It’s easy to use. In most cases, you hand over the card, say NCMC or Metro Card and that gets the job done. With BEST, I was unsure if my RBL NCMC would work, the conductor reassured me by saying that “he’d make sure it worked”, while with MTC, I have told most conductors that it is a valid card and that I have used it before but eventually they accept it. The whole process is quick, takes about five seconds and is often faster than cash because the conductor does not have to count for change. There’s really not much to say because it is a fairly simple and straightforward process. The only time consuming part is to convince the conductor that the card is valid. This has happened with my RBL, Ongo and Airtel cards.

An NCMC ticket issued by BEST (Pic: BESTpedia)

The only issue is that the card needs to be topped up after 20 or so transactions (some lame protection feature apparently) and this happened with me recently. The conductor topped my card up for ₹0. Since my phone supports NFC, I figure the easiest workaround for this is to top up the card for smaller amounts, rather than loading it up for the entire ₹2000 that the card can support.

Another issue is that of the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR). Some transport companies charge extra for this, such as BEST, while most absorb it into their fares. Here is a quick breakdown of BEST’s MDR charges for different fare stages (Regular/Limited/Express/AC):
₹5 – 6 paise
₹10 – 11 Paise
₹15 – 16 paise
₹20- 22 paise
₹6- 7 paise
₹13- 14 paise
₹19- 21 paise
₹25- 27 paise

An NCMC ticket issued by MTC (Pic: BESTpedia)

Now, coming to UPI. This is where things get interesting. I’ve used two different methods of paying via UPI. One is with a static QR Code on BMTC and the other is with a dynamic QR Code on MTC.

A UPI ticket issued by BMTC (Pic: BESTpedia)

Now, the BMTC model is very simple. BMTC began accepting UPI payments in 2020, during the lockdown to reduce contact between passengers and commuters.
BMTC Finally Starts Cashless Ticketing, Uses UPI-Based QR Codes For Transactions
Each bus has its own virtual payment address (VPA, often erroneously referred to as UPI ID) which is the bus’ registration number attached to a Canara Bank Account; Eg: KA57Fxxxx@cnrb. QR Codes for the same are pasted in different parts of the bus, and in some cases, they are also present in the transparent grab handles of the bus.

BMTC QR Code Sticker on the bus (Pic: BESTpedia)

In my case, neither the conductor, nor I had change, so he told me to scan the QR Code and pay. I did, showed him the successful transaction screen and he issued the ticket. This method is extremely popular with passengers using it for as low as ₹5. However, there seems to be no way for the conductor to validate the payment. However, since the ticket machine being used is a standard Pine Labs point-of-sale device, maybe it appears there. This being said, it is high time that BMTC and Canara Bank adopted the NCMC. The process is reasonably fast, although it depends on how fast your internet connection is and multiple people can pay simultaneously making it relatively faster than dynamic QR Codes.

A UPI ticket issued by MTC (Pic: BESTpedia)

Now, coming to the Dynamic QR Code. Here, the conductor has four options on the ETM – Card, UPI, NCMC and Cash. When the conductor selects UPI, it generates a dynamic code that one scans and makes the payment. This is time consuming since it also depends on the speed of the internet on the ETM as well. Only after the QR Code is generated, can you make the payment. Thus, the total time taken to print the ticket takes close to 10-15 seconds. A downside according to me is that the QR Code appeared as invalid on MobiKwik, forcing me to use GPay. The QR Code must be compatible with all payment apps under NPCI’s BharatQR system.

MTC QR Code displayed on the ETM (Pic: BESTpedia)

Overall, it seems that the NCMC is ahead, but let me share two instances that make it the clear winner.

The first instance. A few weeks back, I was traveling to Bangalore. Now recently I have been getting off at Shanthinagar TTMC (Atal Bihari Vajpayee TTMC ) and taking a bus back home. I usually pay by cash but on this day, I had only a ₹500 note on me. This was the week after I first used UPI to buy a ticket. Unfortunately for me, my phone battery ran out, and for some reason, my phone refused to charge, either from my battery pack or from the USB port on the bus. (The cable was at fault, I bought a new one). Which meant that without a phone, I had to pay in cash, which was also a problem since I didn’t have change. Eventually I managed to make change at a shop inside the terminal, albeit the shopkeeper gave it to me grudgingly.

The second instance is a more recent one. On 12 April, UPI services faced a five-hour long outage. This was the longest in over three years and one of four such outages over a three week span.

Now, both these instances were unprecedented and of course problematic.

So, what could be the solution? Going back to the Card? Maybe. At least with Transit.

UPI was introduced to ensure that transactions were conducted domestically, therefore reducing their costs. But then, NCMC is entirely built atop the RuPay platform which operates domestically, unlike Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover.

This is not to put down UPI however. It is a fantastic platform. However, in cases like public transport, which experiences high volume density of transactions, it makes more sense to use the NCMC.

What are your thoughts? Do let me know in the comments section below.

Recommended Reading: The Best Interface is No Interface by Golden Krishna

What Do You Think The World’s Smallest Car Was?

What comes to your mind when someone says “The World’s ‘smallest’ car?”

Family Guy joke on Giant Samsung Phone being a Tiny Kia Car, hosted on BESTpedia

I’m sure many of you may have different ideas when you hear the word ‘smallest car’ and some of you may have seen the above scene from Family Guy but still.

In fact, there exists a car that is officially adjudged as the world’s smallest car –the Peel P50 – manufactured by the British (Manx, from the Isle of Man) Peel Engineering Company that was famous for its fibreglass boats in the 1950s through the 1970s when it folded.

The Peel P50 was recognised in 2010 by the Guinness Book of World Records as the smallest production car ever made.

Interestingly, the British also made the Welbike, a portable, foldable single-seat motorcycle manufactured by the Excelsior Motor Company of Birmingham under the management of Station IX during World War II. The bike was designed to be folded into the standard CLE Cannister to be airdropped and then be used.

Anyway, coming back to the topic of small cars.

The P50, on record remains the smallest car. Now, for those of us who grew up in the early 2000s, we might have seen this on the third episode of the tenth series of Top Gear, hosted by Jeremy Clarkson. Clearly, for Clarkson, the P50 was too big, as evinced by the pilot episode of the nineteenth series, a mere six years later, when he built the P45, an even smaller car, which, from the looks of it was essentially looked like he was wearing an oversized raincoat while driving on a cart through London.

Jeremy Clarkshon driving the P45 (LG62 LYF)

The P45, built by Clarkson, and called the ‘birth of the future’, was compliant with most of the United Kingdom’s regulations relating to motor vehicles. Based on a quadricycle, it featured a 100-cc, two-stroke engine with a 1.7 litre petrol tank, which could be swapped out for a battery-powered motor, thus making it a hybrid, albeit restricting it to a speed of 3 miles/hour with the battery lasting just the hour. It also featured a reverse gear, something the P50 didn’t have.

Clarkson began by driving the P45 (the base model as he called it, with a “premium” feature being a hand-held wiper to clean the alleged windshield) on local roads before getting onto main roads and eventually the A3 road to reach London where he got so scared that he took the car with him on a bus for the rest of the journey. In London, he drove it into a mall, did some shopping, where he ran it on electric mode and then headed to the British Library to check how quiet the electric mode was, before running out of battery. He also drove it to the theatre to watch a show.

Clarkson also pitched the P45 to the investors of Dragon’s Den (what Shark Tank was known as before) where it ostensibly got rejected for being, well “impractical”.

You can watch Jeremy Clarkson’s adventures with the P45 on YouTube too:

Interestingly, Clarkson also has a show on Amazon Prime UK titled Clarkson’s Farm, which is a farming documentary.

What is the smallest car in India?

At the surface level, there are many answers to this question. Older people might answer Maruti 800, some may say Tata Nano or its electric variant, the Jayem Neo. Some might recall Chetan Maini’s Reva or its successor, the Mahindra E2O. A more recent answer is the MG Comet. Some may include quadricycles such as the Bajaj Qute or the Mahindra Atom.

The real answer here is something totally different. Built by Indore-based Wings EV, the Wings Robin is billed as India’s first microcar and is the same length as an average motorbike. It’s a two seater, with one seat behind the other, much like a two-seater aircraft, although the manufacturer claims it can support 2.5 people.

Here’s what the Robin looks like.

The Wings EV Robin during a test run. Photo via Wings EV on Youtube

(Fun fact: This test run was done at Adarsh Palm Retreat in Bangalore. I saw a test run there last month, but by the time I pulled out my phone, the car had sped away)

There are other names floating around too, if you know any, drop a message in the comments below.

Between 2012 And 2022, DTC Inducted Just Two Buses (And Suffered Crazy Losses)

It’s been a while since I posted anything Delhi related. The last post, written in the context of the 2016 demonetisation excercise, was critical of the Delhi Transport Corporation’s ethics, especially due to allegations of the body being used to launder money. Read: DTC and Ethics: No connection there

So, here goes. As reported by ThePrint, Delhi’s bus melee has been quite chaotic.

In the decade that started with the financial year of 2011-2012 and ended in 2021-2022, the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) inducted just two buses into its fleet. That’s right, just two! The matter came to light when the long-pending Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) report was finally tabled by the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) recently.

The DTC’s fleet shrunk from 4,344 in 2015-16 to 3,937 in 2021-22. This was despite the availability of over ₹230 crore for the procurement of new buses. Now, to get some context. A 2007 directive by the Delhi High Court asked for the fleet strength to be increased to 11,000 buses by 2009. It was around this time that the erstwhile Blueline buses were phased out and the Cluster Bus scheme was introduced. The cluster bus scheme, under the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) was to operate 5,500 buses with the balance 5,500 to be operated by the DTC. However, as per the report, on 31 March 2022, only 7,001 buses were operational in Delhi, with 3,762 of them being under DTC and 3,239 being under DIMTS. Concurrently, the DTC’s financial liability soared to ₹65,274.3 crore in 21-22 from ₹28,263 crore in 15-16!

After 2011-2012, only two electric buses were procured by the DTC, that too in March 2022. By that time, the low-floor CNG buses that were operating across the National Capital had exceeded their 12 years of useful life. Of the 3,937 buses in the DTC fleet, 1,770 were overage by March 2023. Only five buses were overage in 2018-19, forming 0.13 per cent of the total fleet and that number rose sharply to form 44.96 per cent of the fleet. Subsequently, the DTC procured a mere 300 electric buses till 2023. Nine proposals had been approved by the Corporation’s board between 2013 and 2021 but none went to the tendering stage because either the GNCTD didn’t give formal approval, or because the GNCTD changed the specifications. There was also an inordinate delay in finalising the bids for the electric buses, resulting in the DTC losing ₹49 crore as assistance from the Central Government under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme.

Now, the implications of this are pretty clear. DTC’s fleet utlisation remained at 85.27 per cent in the financial year 2021-2022, as opposed to the expected 92 per cent availability for DIMTS contractors. There were between 2.90 and 4.57 breakdowns per 10,000 km due to the exceeding age of the fleet. This was much higher than other transcos and even the DIMTS. In stark contrast to this, the DIMTS fleet saw its fleet utilisation stay at 99.01 per cent during the same period (2021-2022).

It has been a very bad decade for DTC. Clearly. Remember in 2016, there were allegations that the Aam Aadmi Party was using the DTC to launder money in the aftermath of Demonetisation?

Let’s hope things improve from hereon.

Featured Image: A collage of DTC and DIMTS buses

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What is the smallest car in India?

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