In the near future, the Delhi government will introduce a new mobility card that will enable commuters to pay fares electronically on both buses and the metro. On Sunday, the Delhi Transport department published a notice requesting an electronic tender for this.
It means that passengers will be able to purchase bus tickets and use the same card to travel on the Delhi Metro at the same time.
The cards are a part of the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC), which enables travellers to utilise their NCMC-compliant RuPay debit card for simple travel from any location in the nation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the first NCMC services on the Airport Express Line of the Delhi Metro in December 2020.
In a statement, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said, “Delhi wants to enable a system for the commuters to even know if the next bus coming is 100% full or partly crowded along with tracking of buses at the bus stop to know their exact waiting time”.
In accordance with the agreement, the concessionaire selected to implement the project will first be required to instal electronic ticketing machines (ETMs) in Delhi’s public buses.
Senior transport department officials stated that although no DTC buses had ETMs, these devices were utilised in almost 2,000 cluster buses until September 2022, but either no longer function or require an upgrade. New ETMs would be placed in all city buses, they added.
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Currently, there are 7,379 state-run buses operating in Delhi, including 300 electric buses, on roughly 500 routes. The Delhi government reported that 4 million people use public buses on a daily average.
“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.
It also entails offering smart cards or NCMC cards as an alternative to cash when purchasing tickets.
The government would be able to easily maintain a record of each trip thanks to the digital tickets, which will also help it allocate buses logically across more than 500 bus routes.
