Final trials of one-nation-one-card in 3-4 months: Amitabh Kant

New Delhi : Soon it will be possible to use one smartcard to travel on every public transport service across the nation as the final trials for one-nation-one-card would be held in the next few months, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Thursday.

He said a lot of work has already been done on the one-nation-one-card policy after consultation with all stakeholders.

"All the back-end technology work has been done on this and probably in the next three-four months, we should be able to hold the final trials and testing cutting across rails, metros, and buses," Kant said while addressing the media here.

He said the idea was that a person should be able to use the same card to travel in Mumbai as well as in a remote part of Uttar Pradesh.

"The same card will also work as a debit or a credit card," he added.

"Several agencies are involved in this including Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, banks and Urban Development Ministry. Huge amount of technology work has been done. We have had several rounds of meetings and all ministries are involved," Kant said.

Earlier this week, Kant had announced that India will shortly unveil a one-nation-one-card policy for public transport that will bring seamless connectivity between various modes of transport.

He said a robust transportation sector was the backbone for the development of any economy, especially for a densely populated developing country like India, and the focus of the nation's mobility strategy was on sustainable modes of public transport, transport-oriented planning and digitisation.

"The objective of the strategy is to plan for the citizens first, rather than focus on vehicles alone, by providing sustainable mobility and accessibility by switching to cleaner mode of transportation," Kant had said.