Soon, Metro-like smart cards to allow e-payments on Delhi buses

The cards are part of the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) that enables passengers from any part of the country to use their NCMC-compliant RuPay debit card for seamless travel.

The Delhi government will soon launch smart mobility cards which will enable commuters to pay their fare electronically in city public buses, officials aware of the matter said on Sunday, and added that the state has floated a tender seeking agency to roll out the project and develop software support.

Currently Delhi has 7,379 state-run buses which run on around 500 routes, including 300 electric buses. On an average, 4 million people travel in public buses daily, the Delhi government said. (Raj K Raj/HT photo)

The officials added that commuters will be able to use the same cards to pay fare in Delhi Metro as well. The cards are part of the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) that enables passengers from any part of the country to use their NCMC-compliant RuPay debit card for seamless travel. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the first NCMC services on the Airport Express Line of the Delhi Metro in December 2020.

As part of the arrangement, the concessionaire chosen for rolling out the project will first have to install electronic ticketing machines (ETMs) in public buses in Delhi. Senior transport department officials said while no DTC buses have ETMs, these devices were used till September 2022 in nearly 2,000 cluster buses but now either they don’t work or need an upgrade. They added that new ETMs will be installed in all city buses.

Currently Delhi has 7,379 state-run buses which run on around 500 routes, including 300 electric buses. On an average, 4 million people travel in public buses daily, the Delhi government said.

Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot said the government wants to do away with the current manual ticketing system. “Under the leadership of CM Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi has been committed to provide more convenient and safer travel for its citizens. Under the current paper ticketing system, the origin and destination of a traveller are not captured. Delhi wants to launch a system in which the commuters get real-time status of buses and also the how occupied the bus is. The NCMC-enabled solution will help commuters to use the same card for multi-modal transit systems starting with bus and Metro. The idea is to roll out for all modes of public transport in the city making Delhi a world-class city,” Gahlot said.

The digital tickets will make it easy for the government to maintain the record of each trip and help it deploy buses rationally across over 500 bus routes. The digital ticketing solution is also part of the route rationalisation study conducted by the transport department whose pilot phase is in progress since October 2022, a second transport official said.

The tender floated by the transport department includes the supply and operation of electronic ticketing machines for 7,500 buses in the first phase and the smart cards . “The mobility cards can be recharged by making a payment to the ETM operators inside the buses. The ETM machine will also issue Pink tickets, enabling women to travel for free to their destination,” the second official said.

The service provider will also develop a mobile app to enable buying of online tickets and concessional passes. “This is a complete digital solution to remove any chances of pilferages in the process,” the Delhi government said in a statement.

Delhi transport commissioner Ashish Kundra said that the mobility cards will enable public transport in Delhi to move away from manual ticketing. “The cards will be compliant with the NCMC and will be valid in all state-run buses, Delhi Metro and even in other cities,” said Kundra.