The wait for the Integrated Ticketing System (ITS) is set to get longer as the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), the nodal agency implementing the system, will soon be making changes to the tender requirements to make it compliant with the Niti Aayog’s One Nation One Card policy.
MMRDA officials said they have begun the process and that the ITS will now have two systems on the card: ‘Account Based System’ and ‘Stored Value’.
“We have decided that we will follow the guidelines laid under the One Nation One Card framework, which NITI Aayog wants. The card will have both systems, but we need to study what the implication will be with regard to the hardware and banking solutions, which we are doing,” a MMRDA official said. The official said if ITS had both systems, it would make it possible to migrate from one to the other.
The MMRDA had originally planned the ITS with the Account Based System, which does not require the card to store any balance. The card directly reads the balance in the commuter’s account and deducts the necessary fare. The Railways, however, were insisting the card have only the Stored Value feature, which functions similar to the Railway SmartCard.
NITI Aayog is said to have preferred the Stored Value system for the One Nation One Card policy as it has lower dependence on a robust communication network. But MMRDA officials feel that in a city like Mumbai, this would not be an issue. “Globally, transport agencies are making their ticketing systems account-based. Such systems will also allow us to seamlessly integrate mobile ticketing in the future,” an official said.
The MMRDA had floated tenders for the umbrella system in April, which will encompass all public transportation organisations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
