Travel pan-India with mobility card

It's time to bid goodbye to heavy purses and all that stuff that you carry when you travel in public transport. All thanks to the Common Mobility Card-a prepaid smart card that will allow denizens to travel in public transport- bus, auto-rickshaw, taxi and even book railway tickets pan India.

The card, an initiative of Central Government's Department of Urban Transport aims to simplify transportation on the lines of cities like London's Octopus, Singapore or more like Holland, the only country to implement Integrated Ticketing System.

The plan, to implement the service, was discussed at a three-day-conference on Sub - Regional Environmentally Sustainable Transport - Training Workshop cum Policy Dialogue in South Asia by Officer in Special Duty (Urban Transport), Sanjeev Kumar Lohiya on Friday said.

The conference is organized by United Nations Center for Regional Development, South Asia Co-operative Environment Program, Ministry of Environment, Japan, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT).

Talking to DNA, Lohiya said Jaipur has become the first city to implement the system and cities in Karnataka will follow the suit soon. When asked about Gujarat, he said they would like Gujarat to take lead in the scheme but so far they have not heard anything from authorities here.

"Under the system, we have taken help of a firm- UTITISL which will acts as the technology aggravator to provide the services. Under the plan, commuters can take a prepaid smart card from say Delhi and use it in metro, city transport. When they travel to Mumbai or Jaipur, they can use the same card in public transport, autos and taxis if they have availed the service of the card," said Lohiya. He also mentioned that the card will a have system to detect different ticket fares as per various services available in different pockets of city.

Lohiya said the green ticketing system will be secure as it will not allow duplication. The move will also reduce the burden, of carrying cash and change, on commuters and simultaneously will make it easier for the conductor who will no more have to go collecting the tickets.

Experts at the conference discussed the negative impacts of climate change on parts of public transport policy as vehicular emissions are harmful not only to humans but are also a threat to environment. Ahmedabad mayor Asit Vora, municipal commissioner Guruprasad Mohapatra, principal secretary Urban Development and Urban Housing Department IP Gautam, associate director at CEPT Shivanand Swamy, Choudhary Rudrea, Charan Mohanty from UNCRD and Jacintha Silverine Trissera from SACEP were present on the occasion.