Ahmedabad: On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC), which is indigenously-developed to enable people to pay multiple types of transport charges across the county, including metro services and toll tax.

The inter-operable transport card, dubbed as ‘One Nation One Card’, would allow people to not only pay for their bus travel, parking charges, toll taxes and retail shopping, it will also let the holders withdraw money.

The NCMC was  launched  by the  Prime Minister while he inaugurated the first phase of the Ahmedabad metro train service. The 6.5-km stretch of phase one of the Ahmedabad Metro will be connecting Vastral to Apparel Park Area. Modi also took a ride on the metro after the inauguration.

"This card runs on RuPay card and it will eliminate all your travel related problems. Many a times, we do not have change to pay in cash while travelling in metro, bus or train, or for toll and parking. To overcome this issue, an automatic fare collection system was introduced," Modi said.

Modi mentioned that India used to import this system of automatic fare collection from foreign countries.

"Since systems were made by different players, a card issued in one city did not work in another city. Thus, we asked various ministries, departments and even banks to resolve this issue," he said.

"Now, our dream of 'One Nation One Card' has been realised. People can also withdraw money using this Common Mobility Card. This RuPay card can be used for travelling in metros in any part of the country. In simple terms, we have merged the RuPay card with the mobility card," the Prime Minister said.

Modi said that the country no longer needs to be dependent on foreign technology, with the advent of this indigenously-developed, one-of-its-kind card.

"Now, we have this Made in India card. Only a select few countries have this technology of 'One Nation One Card'," Modi said.

An official release said that the NCMC cards are bank-issued cards on debit/credit/pre-paid card product platform, which can be used to make payments across all segments including metro, bus, suburban railways, parking, toll, smart city and retail shopping.

"The stored value on card supports offline transaction across all travel needs with minimal financial risk to involved stake-holders. The service area feature of this card supports operator specific applications e.g. monthly passes, season tickets etc," the official release said.

The release stated that until now, the major challenge which was associated with the Automatic Fare Collection System (AFC) implemented in the country, was the lack of indigenous solution provider.

"Till now, AFC systems deployed at various Metros are from foreign players. In order to avoid the vendor lock-in and create an inter-operable system, there was a need to develop indigenous standards and AFC system under Make in India initiative," it stated.

The release also said that the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) came out with the NCMC programme, in order to not only ensure a seamless travel across metros and all other transport systems, but also for use in retail shopping and purchases.