Chennai: In January 2022, commuters can shop, take bite, vehicle parking and metro board in a single card knock, because Chennai Metro Rail Limited is likely to launch a National General Mobility Card (NCMC).
NCMC, which is conceived by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and launched in 2019, allows unlimited travel with Metro Rail, MTC and other transportation systems in addition to retail shopping and purchasing and banking transactions.
A Metro Rail official said this concept was shown in the Metro station two months ago where the card was tapped at the gate collection of automatic rates installed at the station concourse level.
“We hope to launch a system in the new year,” said an official.
Officials say it will be a Rubay Debit Card that matches NCMC, which will work similar to SmartCard Metro Rail where users can add and tap it at the AFC gate at the Metro station.
But unlike smart cards that can be used only for Metro rides and for parking vehicles at the Metro station, NCMC can also be used in other transport modes such as MTC and suburban trains when the transit system launches service.
While in the Metro Rail SmartCards, the number of tickets is stored on a card in a pre-paid format and reduced at the gate, NCMC will involve bank transactions between the card issuing bank and the banking bank that will partner with CMRL to allow.