Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while being on a two-day trip to Gujarat, was reported to launch ‘One Nation One Card’ in Ahmedabad, on March 4. PM Modi, on Monday, launched the single smart card to meet all transportation needs across the country. One smartphone for all public transport in the nation, which will no no boundaries within the nation.
Government’s policy think tank, Niti Aayog, had ideated to form this new card policy for public transport in the nation. They proposed this new concept of a single plastic card for commuting across the nation through any mode of transportation without needing cash. The concept is said to be inspired by a similar mechanism used in the high tech and expensive cities like London and Singapore.
All you need to know about this Card:
– People can use the ‘One Nation One Card’ to travel in buses, metros, railways, local trains, etc.
– They can avoid paying cash everywhere and so they can get rid of lot of cash handling. Also, government will also be able to meet it’s objective of digitisation.
– This card would be similar to a credit or debit cards which can be used everywhere across the country for all modes of transportation.
– According to the Central Government, all the new debit and credit cards issued by the banks will have National Common Mobility card feature in them which will enable people to swipe them in the Point on Sale (PoS) machines installed at the ticket counter. It could also be used as a metro rail smart card to enter a platform.
– The amount costing the ticket will be debited from the account. This will save the passengers’ time to queue up for tickets at the counter.
However, Delhi Metro has already started a test run of the Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) counters which are advanced in reading new cards for smooth entry and exit of commuters. These AFCs, for now, are limited for few metro stations only. However, once the trial run concludes, the AFCs will be installed in the existing metro stations as well, gradually replacing the ones currently in operation.
Speaking at ‘Future Mobility Summit 2018, India’s Move to NextGen Transport Systems”, on September 4, last year, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant had said, “The focus of our mobility strategy is on sustainable modes of public transport, transport oriented planning, digitisation, among others. The objective of the strategy is to plan for the citizens of India first, rather than focussing on vehicles alone, by providing sustainable mobility and accessibility by switching to a cleaner mode of transportation such as electric, ethanol, methanol, CNG, LNG and hydrogen fuel cells.”
According to the reports on the matter, designing the AFCs within the country has enabled to reduce the cost of the counters by a huge margin, considering the mass rollout of the units throughout the metro rail network. Earlier, these were being provided by foreign countries which used to charge high royalty on the units. Cards like these are being used in cities like Singapore and London.
