Soon, use common mobility cards on MTC buses in Chennai
Once the facility is integrated, passengers would also be able to use Chennai Metro Rail-issued NCMC cards, said MTC managing director Alby John Varghese.
CHENNAI: The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) is planning to introduce National Common Mobility Cards (NCMC) within a month to facilitate cashless transactions and issue tickets to passengers through electronic ticketing machines (ETMs) with ease.
Once the facility is integrated, passengers would also be able to use Chennai Metro Rail-issued NCMC cards, said MTC managing director Alby John Varghese.
The corporation was planning to introduce the facility earlier, but technical issues in enabling its integration with electronic machines took some time to resolve. Now, MTC is planning to introduce the NCMC card facility within a month, the official said, adding that these cards would be issued to passengers who can top up and use them for seamless travel.
In February 2024, the corporation launched ETMs to enable cashless payment to buy tickets. "We have now achieved 99 per cent of ticket transactions through ETMs. We have almost done away with the issue of paper bundle tickets. In the next phase of transition, we aim to move towards cashless ticketing. For that, we are going to introduce NCMC cards within a month," he said.
Currently, only one per cent of ticketing is done through cashless payments like UPI/debit or credit cards, he noted.
To encourage cashless transactions, MTC has started to give cash incentives to bus conductors who conduct the most number of such transactions in a month. On Monday, the MTC MD gave cash awards to three conductors - P Thandayuthapani (Central Depot), S Dakshinamoorthy (Chrompet - I Depot), and G Senthamilchelvan (Adyar Depot) who did the most number of UPI digital transactions with passengers using electronic ticketing machines.
These crew members did 300 UPI transactions in a month, he added.
Cashless transactions would help avoid issues over tendering exact change for ticket fares between conductors and passengers, Varghese said. "Sometimes it is difficult to issue tickets through UPI payments in crowded buses. There are connectivity issues too. However, we are encouraging conductors to issue tickets based on UPI payments," he said.