NCMC – BESTpedia

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

NCMC: An Open Letter To NPCI And Several Transport Operators

This is a quasi-continuation of the previous post All You Need To Know About The National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) where I had mentioned about ‘Exclusive’ NCMCs.

It was Saturday, 16 March 2024. I walked into the Vanaz metro station in Pune, asked the Customer Care if my NCMC would work (they said yes) and then crossed security. When I swiped my card at the turnstile, it refused to work. I tried multiple times and it still didn’t work. I then walked back to the counter and was asked to show my card. Back then I was using an RBL Bank issued Namma Metro NCMC from Bangalore. On seeing my card, the customer care agent curtly replied, “This card won’t work. You need to get our NCMC”. I know, it didn’t make sense then and it doesn’t make sense even now. Eventually I settled on buying a ticket to PMC Bhavan so that I’d take a bus back. I was originally planning to try out both lines but now I’d have to buy different tickets, instead of just swiping in and out as I had originally planned. Totally dampened my spirits and left me unable to even enjoy the Titagarh Firema trains that I had been looking forward to ever since they released the first render. To make matters worse, it turns out that when I tried to pay for my tickets using UPI, it didn’t work on either Amazon Pay or MobiKwik. Yeah, I’m not big on GPay or PhonePe. Eventually I settled for paying in cash. It seems Mahametro was pulling out all the stops to ensure that all the interoperability that the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) strived to ensure under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious Digital India mission would fail. The interesting thing was that barely a month ago, one Bhaumik Gowande had shared on Twitter (now X) that he had successfully used his HDFC Bank-issued Pune Metro NCMC on the Delhi Metro. Eventually I confirmed with multiple people that no other card worked on the Pune Metro. Two days later, I was in Mumbai where I used the same RBL Bank NCMC without issues on Mumbai Metro’s Line 1 and Line 7 as well as on a BEST Bus.

This has been a total disappointment so far since I’m the guy who used to travel a lot between Mumbai and Pune and I always got off at Chembur and made my way to Ghatkopar before heading to Andheri by metro. The metro would seem to be the obvious choice coming back to Pune as well. If I caught a bus heading to Pune Station via Pimpri-Chinchwad, I’d get down at PCMC Bhavan, if Swargate via Chandani Chowk then at Vanaz. I sincerely hope that the PMRDA/Pune IT City Metro Rail/Tata-Siemens line does not do the same mistake since a lot of people would get off at Bhujbal Chowk and take the metro to either Hinjewadi or the rest of Pune City.

Over the next few months, I heard that the issue was there even on Nagpur Metro, another MahaMetro Line. This got me thinking and after reaching out to a few more friends, I unearthed more. It wasn’t just Pune and Nagpur but also Kochi and Noida for metro and Ahmedabad and Surat for buses.

Then I stumbled upon NPCI’s list of live members and everything made sense. Noida’s City1, Ahmedabad’s Janmitra, Surat’s SuratMoney, Kochi’s Kochi1, Nagpur’s MahaCard and Pune’s OnePune Card were all ‘exclusive NCMCs”, although that makes no sense. That’s neither National, nor Common. Or, to quote someone who replied to me when I was ranting about my Pune experience, NCMC in these cities stood for “Nahi chalega, M*****c***”.

Now, just imagine the irony of this. The NCMC in its current form was launched six years ago, coincidentally on my birthday, by the BJP government and was promoted extensively as ‘One Nation, One Card’ everywhere. The RBL Namma Metro NCMC from Bangalore in fact even says these four words on the front of the card. Of the six cities where this exclusivity is seen, five of them are in BJP-ruled states. Oh, the delicious irony. I’ve already explained why this is a bad idea for the Mumbai-Pune belt already but here me out.

In Noida, as part of the National Capital Region (NCR), there are three metro systems adjacent to it that accept NCMC – Delhi Metro, RapidX, Rapid Metro Rail Gurgaon (RMRG). You can count Delhi Metro twice if you want to count the Airport Express line as independent and skip RMRG since it is practically a part of Delhi Metro since IL&FS went bankrupt. It gets worse considering that in the near future, the Meerut Metro will open up and since it is an extension of RapidX, you can use the NCMC there with a breeze but just not in Noida and Greater Noida.

Now come down to Amdavad where the Gujarat Metro Rail Corp (GMRC, formerly MEGA) accepts any NCMC across its network. But the Janmitra Card, issued by the Ahmedabad Smart City Corporation through ICICI Bank is the only card that works on the Janmarg BRTS, AMTS buses, and for entry at Kankaria Lake and the Sabarmati Riverfront. So you still need to carry two cards here.

Surat remains fairly fine in the current scenario but once the Mumbai-Amdavad HSR line opens up, and the Surat Metro as well, what will happen? People will be traveling a lot between these cities and it will be the repeat of the Mumbai-Pune debacle. Kochi, alone remains fairly isolated in this mess but I’ve been told that Axis Bank requires you to go through the entire KYC process once a year. Ironically one transit fan once made fun of me saying Kochi was the first to launch NCMC and Mumbai and Bangalore had a lot of catching up to do. That must be stinging him today.

Further, what if this causes existing transport operators who accept any NCMC to start accepting only their own NCMC?

So, to NPCI, MahaMetro, Noida Metro Rail Corp, Kochi Metro Rail Corp, Amdavad and Surat Municipal Corporations, can we set aside this nonsense and truly embrace a common mobility card? One that works everywhere? One that doesn’t need me to buy your card when I have a perfectly functioning card already? My current Airtel Payments Bank Card has successfully been used on six systems as of now – Mumbai Metro One, Maha Mumbai Metro, BEST buses, Bangalore’s Namma Metro, Chennai Metro and MTC buses. As I travel, I will be using the card on other systems that support any and all NCMCs.

The very concept of an ‘exclusive NCMC’ beats the very concept of the card itself. I hope the NPCI and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), the implementing agency for the NCMC take note of this to make things easier for commuters.

All You Need To Know About The National Common Mobility Card (NCMC)

One phrase that has been going on for the past few years in the transit scene is the National Common Mobility Card, or NCMC, sometimes going by the name One Nation, One Card as well. So, what is the NCMC, how does it work and how does one get it?

The answer is simple. The NCMC is essentially an EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) compatible open-loop card that can be used for transit almost anywhere in India. The NCMC is a RuPay (usually Prepaid, sometimes Debit) card issued by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) through a bank. In principle, any RuPay card (Prepaid and Debit) can be used as an NCMC after a service area creation (you present the card to the customer care at the metro station and ask them to do so) and after that it works. Just ensure that the RuPay Contactless symbol is visible on the card. The transit balance is known as the ‘Offline’ or ‘Contactless’ balance and is not the same as the balance that can be used for regular swipe transactions.

Now comes the common question, what if you, like me, don’t want a regular debit or credit card shoved down my throat and just want a card purely for transit purposes?

So it turns out NPCI has three variants of the RuPay Contactless. The first is a Debit Card that is linked to a savings bank account and has the following limits: ₹2,000 for transit payments, ₹5,000 for contactless PoS payments, ₹10,000 for ATM withdrawals and ₹25,000 for shopping (regular payments). The second is the Minimum KYC Wallet that allows for the same ₹2,000 limit for transit payments and ₹9,000 for PoS payments (shopping) and drops support for ATM withdrawals. The last one is the Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) card that acts as a standalone transit card with a limit of ₹2,000 for transit payments only.

Now, most transit companies that are accepting NCMC (You can check out the full list by clicking here) will issue a card either after minimum KYC or even no KYC. For minimum KYC, they will ask for your ID proof, either PAN or Aadhaar and a phone number. For no KYC, you don’t even need that. If you’re in Chennai, you can get a no KYC Ongo NCMC through vending machines at various stations. If you’re in Mumbai, you can get the Airtel NCMC with just your phone number and a one-time password (OTP) at any Blue Line (Line 1) station.

If you get an NCMC at either a metro station or bus terminal, then you will likely not have to create a service area for it. You can just directly use it.

Now, coming to the next part – recharging your NCMC. An NCMC can be recharged anywhere where it is accepted. That means you can recharge it at the customer care of the metro station you used it at or at the depot of the bus transco that you used it at. Alternatively, you can also recharge it online, using the bank’s website or the bank’s app. Note. Online recharges require the card to be topped up before they can be used. You can do this at any of the card validating machines at the metro station, or if you have NFC capabilities on your phone, you can do it then and there. If you’re recharging at a metro station, do ask the staff once. Some metro systems have awkward regulations, such as Chennai Metro not allowing UPI transactions for non-SBI cards to be recharged.

Where the NCMC won’t work

Now comes an interesting thing. There are some cases where your existing NCMC may not work even though the system is fully NCMC compliant. These are: Noida Metro, Kochi Metro, Pune Metro, Nagpur Metro, Ahmedabad Janmarg (BRTS), Ahmedabad City buses (AMTS) and Surat Citilink (BRTS). Why? According to NPCI, these systems are exclusive systems which means that only their NCMCs will be accepted there but not others. However, these NCMCs will be valid on all the other non-exclusive systems. To quote NPCI: “Exclusive NCMC project means a single bank is selected by a transit operator who acts as issuer as well as acquirer.” Further, NPCI also states that “NCMC cards of other banks will also get accepted in future as decided by Authority.”

A more detailed article on this will follow soon.

So now, you know how the NCMC works, how to get one, how to recharge it and how to use it. So go on out, start traveling and let me know. If you run into any trouble or find out something interesting about the NCMC, do drop a note in the comments below.

Note: I personally recommend getting the Airtel Payments Bank NCMC. It has so far been problem-free, allows me to track my payments properly and more.

PM e-Bus Sewa Is Here; 10,000 Electric Buses To Be Deployed On PPP Model Across India

In what can only be considered a big boost for public transport, clean air and people’s pockets, the Cabinet approved the PM e-Bus Sewa on 16 August 2023.

Under this scheme, the Centre plans to deploy 10,000 electric buses across the country. According to the release on the Press Information Bureau, the buses will be deployed under the public-private partnership (PPP) model across 169 cities while the infrastructure will be upgraded in 181 cities under Green Urban Mobility Initiatives (GUMI). The estimated cost of the PM e-Bus Sewa is expected to be ₹57,613 crore and is expected to generate over 45,000 direct jobs.

All cities with a population above three lakh (as per the 2011 census) along with the capital cities of Union Territories, Northeastern region and the hill states will be covered with priority being given to those cities that currently do not have an organised bus service.

The programme is divided into two segments:

Segment A involves augmenting city bus services in 169 cities along with providing support for the associated infrastructure, upgradation of depots, establishment of substations, etc.

Segment B will cover GUMI across 181 cities. Here, initiatives such as bus priority, multimodal transit, NCMC-based payment systems, and charging infrastructure will be provided.

States, cities and the parastatals will be responsible for making payments to the private operators while the Centre will provide subsidies to the extent provided under the scheme.

This scheme is great news for India as it will impact not just public transport, but a lot of things. For starters, it will give a huge fillip to the manufacturing and the supply-chain ecosystem of buses, their components, and behind-the-meter infrastructure. The increased availability of buses will also change how people perceive commuting and how they actually commute.

One good news that merged right away was Volvo’s entry into the electric bus segment in India. Volvo India stated that it would consider entering the sector under either the Volvo or Eicher brand.

While the government has done a lot in improving the electricity supply system with an increase in renewable energy including solar, wind and even hydel power, it needs to scale up on nuclear power.

Do read this article written by me for Swarajya in 2018: India Needs An Electric-Vehicle Policy; Here’s How It Can Go About It. The government seems to be doing what I had proposed five years ago.

Also, do read Aashish Chandorkar’s article from 2016, on How Indian Cities Can Shift From Diesel To Electric Buses for it explains economies of scale very well.

The shift from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM, with a jurm of a logo) to the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) to Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME) to now PM e-Bus Sewa has been quite fantastic.

Featured Image: Image by macrovector on Freepik

NCMC Is Here; But Problems Will Persist

Public transit in India has a problem of plenty, on multiple levels. Plenty of obstacles, that is.

Obstacles, such as lack of political will to plan and execute projects at the state level, the Not-In-My-Backyard (NIMBY) syndrome among persons who may or may not be affected by a planned project, a militant civil society, among various others.

One of these obstacles also include the variety of fare collection media. Most cities of India have not been able to replicate successful projects, like Oyster (London), Octopus (Hong Kong), Nol (Dubai), OMNY (New York), on their public transit systems, demonstrating a lack of coordination between the different public transit system operators. Most of such attempts – such as the GO MUMBAI card, designed for a single ticketing system on the BEST and the Mumbai Local – failed miserably, due to the transit operators’ resistance, or a half-baked product, or a private contractor lacking the required expertise to support the project, etc, or a mix of all of them^[1]. Although, to be fair, the public transit systems in cities like London, Hong Kong, Dubai, New York etc are run directly or indirectly by a unified city-level transit agency, like Transport for London, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York), Roads and Transport Authority (Dubai) and MTR Corporation (Hong Kong) – something which, as conventional wisdom suggests, may be in the realm of impossibility in India.

A national common mobility card had been on the drawing board since 2010. The card was titled “More” – a reference to the peacock – and was first launched in Delhi, for unified payments on the Delhi Metro and DTC buses. This too, failed, due to a lack of effort from all stakeholders. Delhi Metro, DTC and the Rapid Metro Gurgaon now have the ONE DELHI card, a closed-loop system.

In view of the failures of the past on this front, the Modi government launched the National Common Mobility Card in 2019, with a different approach this time. This time, banks too were involved in the project, and so was the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)^[2]. Under this new approach, NCMC wasn’t launched as one card, but as a set of technological standards developed by Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), and the NPCI, to be adopted by all transit operators and projects, who are free to choose their own issuer and acquirer banks to run their respective fare collection and management projects. NCMCs mandatorily have to be RuPay contactless cards issued by banks – debit, credit or prepaid – making them eligible to be used for purposes other than public transit fares too.^[3] Due to them being RuPay cards issued by banks, it is easy to scale up operations for public transit systems not using automated fare collection (AFC) systems, such as buses.

While now is the closest India has ever come to a truly “national” common mobility card, there is still a long way to go. Cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, continue to be very heavily reliant on suburban railway services operated by the concerned zones of the Indian Railways, by using legacy infrastructure. Most importantly, suburban railways, like the mainline long-distance operations, use the proof-of-payment system (PoP) for fare collection. The PoP system entails passengers buying tickets from the ticket windows or online (through the UTS app), and then using the train. The only fare control system, in this case, are random checks by ticket examining staff onboard or at the destination. Most of the times, these random checks are limited to AC trains, and the first-class carriages on non-AC trains. Thus, this makes for a highly inefficient mode of fare collection, control and management, due to the high possibility of fare evasion by passengers.

However, there seems to be no viable alternative to PoP systems on suburban railways. While suburban rail systems currently under construction, such as K-RIDE’s Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project, can adopt the AFC systems, changing the fare collection system on existing systems, and that too, heavily-used systems like the Mumbai Suburban Railway, may prove to be difficult without rebuilding the system from the ground up. Moreover, due to there being different fare classes and products (single journey tickets, return journey tickets, season tickets for first and second class, and also the luggage compartment), converting to AFC systems is all the more difficult.

[1] R. Aklekar, Mumbai’s experiment with smart card fails, DNA (04/01/2010), available at https://www.dnaindia.com/speak-up/report-mumbai-s-experiment-with-smart-card-fails-1447695, last seen on 26/01/2023.

[2] https://www.npci.org.in/PDF/npci/rupay/2020/Concept_Note_Implementation_of_RuPay_qSPARC_based_NCMC%20v2.1.pdf

[3] https://www.npci.org.in/what-we-do/rupay-contactless/live-members

Featured Image: Mumbai One and Chalo NCMC (Photo: Gandharva Purohit, Used with Permission)

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A Ride In BEST Using The New Tap-In, Tap-Out System

On 20 April 2022, the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport undertaking (BEST) launched its first digital bus which had a new “Tap-In and Tap-Out” system. This system is similar to London’s Oyster Card; the only difference is that in London you don’t have to tap out since there is a single fare structure on their routes. Out of curiosity I wanted to try this system since I have been thinking about this after BEST launched their conductor-less bus services.

On 3 May I went to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and took A-115 to Churchgate. When I reached Churchgate Station there were two Electric buses on A-112 (Ahilyabai Holkar Chowk, Churchgate to Gateway of India) but since both buses didn’t have the tap-in/tap-out machines, I skipped both buses and waited for 10 -15 minutes. Then came a CNG Midi bus from Mumbai Central Depot (7147) on the same route. It never came to mind that this bus is the bus I have been waiting for. So I thought I would go back to CSMT Bus Station after taking a short trip to Gateway Of India.

A-112 between Ahilyabai Holkar Chowk, Churchgate Station and Gateway of India. (Photo: Vishal Naik)

I bought a ticket from the ground booking conductor using an NCMC (National Common Mobility Card) and he was surprised to see it since for him it was first time seeing this new card. After telling him about how the card works after tapping it on ticket machine, I boarded the bus and after a few seconds I noticed that there were tap-in/tap-out machines installed at the front and rear doors respectively.

After the end of this trip, I boarded the bus again. I asked the conductor if I could use my card directly on the machines he agreed and at first my NCMC sadly didn’t work so next I used my normal Chalo Card, and it worked like a charm. There was a person who was monitoring this system inside the bus. I asked him why NCMC didn’t work, and he replied that they haven’t updated this system yet which is why my NCMC wasn’t being accepted by the machine. Finally at the end of the journey I had to tap out after that the fare amount was displayed along with the balance remaining in the card on the machine and I got a printed ticket.

Tapping-Out at the destination (Photo: Vishal Naik)

Overall the system looks good, only one thing that should be skipped is printing paper tickets because at the end the machine displays remaining balance and the amount deducted for your card. The driver keeps a tab on commuters who are tapping in making sure that no one enters the bus without tapping in or having valid tickets. If a person forgets to tap out in the next tap In maximum fare will be deducted from his card balance. This system will get rid of those time consuming conductor-less services.

The Printed Ticket at the end (Photo: Vishal Naik)

Before introducing more routes BEST should increase the sales of Chalo Smart card as well as Chalo NCM. It seems like very few NCMCshave been sold because every time I show mine to any conductor it is their first time seeing an NCM. Once Mumbai Metro and the Mumbai Suburban Railway integrate NCMC in their system commuters can easily change modes of transport without carrying multiple cards.

Featured Image: BEST’s Tap-In, Tap-Out system (Photo: Vishal Naik)

If you are stepping out, do note that while masks are no longer mandatory, the new XE variant of the Wuhan Virus is making the rounds. Stay safe, better safe than sorry.

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