Common mobility card pilot project by January-end

Hyderabad : A pilot project to implement the Common Mobility Card to facilitate travel in Hyderabad Metro rail, Road Transport Corporation (RTC) buses and other transport services in the city will be taken up by the end of January 2019. Principal Secretary (Transport, Roads and Buildings) Sunil Sharma and Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) Managing Director N V S Reddy reviewed the status of implementation of common mobility card in twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad at the HMRL office here on Tuesday.

L&T chief operating officer Anil Saini gave details on the status of implementation of CMC card by SBI/Hitachi consortium, a release from HMRL said. Sharma advised RTC officials to finalise the modalities with SBI within a week. Reddy advised officials concerned to speed up the process and start the pilot project by the end of January 2019 in at least in two metro stations, 100 RTC buses and 50 auto-rickshaws near metro catchment areas, it said. Reddy further said the progress of the project will be closely monitored by Sharma and himself. HMRL has been planning for introducing common ticket and smart cards facility (to pay for any mode of transport in Hyderabad) to facilitate hassle-free journey for commuters both in Metro rail, RTC buses,multi-modal transit system (MMTS) and other modes of transports and series of meetings have been held with different departments in this regard.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the 30-km stretch (between Miyapur and Nagole) out of the 72-km long elevated Hyderabad Metro Rail project, in November 2017. With the operationalisation of a 16-km stretch of Hyderabad Metro Rail between Ameerpet and LB Nagar in September this year, Hyderabad Metro Rail is covering 46 km and has become India's second largest Metro Rail network, next only to Delhi. NVS Reddy had earlier said the 10-km stretch between Ameerpet and Hi-Tec City would be opened by December end this year.