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India to Revolutionize Public Transport Sector by Shortly Unveiling a One-Nation-One-Card Policy
A couple of years ago, when the union government divulged a list of 20 smart cities out of the 98 shortlisted for the 'Smart Cities Mission', the country was quite enthusiastic knowing that we have to commence our journey right from the scratch. It’s nothing less than a herculean task to enable smart card access to the world’s fourth-largest railway network and one of the largest road-transportation industries which produce around 23.96 million automobiles a year.
But the announcement from NITI Aayog indicates that India will shortly unveil a One-Nation-One-Card policy for public transport that will bring seamless connectivity between various modes of transport. For instance, in Dubai, one smart card enables you to travel in various RTA (Roads & Transport Authority) transport modes around the beauty of city including its Metro, Buses, Water Buses, Dubai Tram as well as paying for RTA's Paid Parking. Just imagine traveling around the magnificent valleys of Kashmir, monuments in Delhi, historic city of Kolkata, and alluring landscapes of the South with just one smart card.
The beneficial aspects, in fact, resonate in a much bigger bandwidth. According to Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, a robust transportation sector is the backbone for the development of any economy, especially for a densely populated developing country like India. Hence the focus of the nation's mobility strategy lies on sustainable modes of public transport, transport-oriented planning and digitization.
Aiming Priceless Goals
"The objective of the strategy is to plan for the citizens-first, rather than focusing on vehicles alone, by providing sustainable mobility and accessibility by switching to a cleaner mode of transportation," said Amitabh, while addressing the Future Mobility Summit-2018-India's move to NextGen Transport Systems.
As per reports, the transport sector alone contributes to 4 percent of India’s GDP, while Indian Railways contributes more than 2 percent, carrying 23 million travelers and three million tons (MT) of freight daily. As these numbers are expected to increase significantly with the arrival of One-Nation-One-Card policy, it will simultaneously aid in mitigating the worsening air quality, burgeoning predicaments of climate change and ever-growing fuel consumption in the country.
"The citizens, on their part, should work towards sharing a ride, not owning the ride. The government has integrated many stakeholders across departments to drive India's mobility vision," he added.
On the other hand, according to IBEF, the foreign tourist arrival in India stood at 10.177 million and has reached 2.12 million in 2018 (up to February), which makes it one among the predominant sectors poised to reverberate quite loudly. Let’s wait for the revolution!
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