Transportation & Mobility: CCPS Janmitra Card

August 7, 2019

Author: Yatindra Naik

Ahmedabad is the first city in India to implement an NCMC-based open-loop EMV chip prepaid card: the “Janmitra Card”; designed in line with the One Nation One Card policy by NITI Aayog. The card can be used for availing transit (i.e. BRTS/AMTS/Upcoming Metro) and non-transit services (i.e. Municipal services like payments for property tax, professional tax, parking charges, entertainment and amusement charges, birth/death certificate, building plan etc.).

Ahmedabad has adopted a multi-channel-multi-payment-instrument online payments strategy tailor-made for all city services in line with the digitization objectives outlined by the Smart Cities Mission.

With more than 3.20 lac Janmitra cards issued and in-use among citizens, using this smart card, citizens can pay for all services including city transport, municipal bills, parking bill, property taxes, gas bill, entertainment and amusement activities, electronically. Total 158 BRTS stations (equipped with Smart Gates), and AMTS buses (equipped with Pole Validators), are installing capabilities in association with Janmitra Card to enable tap-and-go seamless inter-operability. Top-up for the cards is available at 158 BRTS stations, 8 depots, 375 SDPs, 59 CCC and can also be done through Janyatra app.

The focus on transit services being integrated with the Janmitra card is born from the fact that the AMTS/BRTS transit systems serves over 8 lakh commuters on a daily basis. Promoting online payments amongst them not only makes the transit services more desirable in usability due to the convenience and shorter waiting times, but also enhances efficiency due to its sheer scale.

The usage of Janmitra card is incentivized to encourage adoption. All users who use non-personalized Janmitra card’s tap-in & tap-out facility are provided upfront 10% discount in travel fare. All Janmitra card holders can avail 2 MBPS free Wi-Fi connectivity provided at BRTS stations by registering their Janmitra card number and registered mobile number. The cardholders can also avail benefits of ICICI’s tie-up with various restaurants around the city.

Benefit to citizens:

• Use of the prepaid card improves service times at all counters, reducing queue length and time
• Lesser queue at government service touch points improves responsiveness and serviceability
• Peak loads are reduced, enhancing efficiency and preventing bottlenecks in service delivery
• No hassles of carrying cash and taking tickets before every journey
• Customer experience & wide acceptability has improved due to inter-operability of card
• Positive feedback loop is created which has drawn more citizens towards public transport

Upon referring to the Card Issuance MIS’ dashboard, the following insights were gathered :-

• Over 3,20,000 cards already been issued of which 80% are active; which is highest among the smart cities in India
• Over 7 lakh topup transactions registered for over Rs. 10 Cr. INR has been collected
• Over 23000 retail transactions have been registered with more than 92 lakh INR collected
• About 55,000 people use the card everyday in transit services (BRTS/AMTS)
• 91.6% of total card issuance from Government locations
• Key points – BRTS:

• • 58.5% QtoQ growth in BRTS ticketing
  • 92.5% of total transactions are transit transactions (on-bus transactions)
  • 12.5% of total BRTS transactions through Janmitra card in Q3 in FY 2018-19
  • 18,200+ BRTS journeys per day (Weekday average) using Janmitra card

• Key points – AMTS:

• • 69,000+ AMTS passes are now on Janmitra Card
  • Pole validator testing successful for AMTS
  • 10 Conductor-less busses introduced

The transactions for municipal services of AMC through the digital payment has been increased from 12% to almost 55% in current FY 2018-19. 2% flat discount is given as incentive. Revenue leakage reduction of nearly 15% observed in BRTS/AMTS due to cashless ticketing. Time spent by citizens in queues has been significantly reduced. The government-backed promotion has led to greater acceptability of the card across services. This in turn has increased the utility of the card for the citizens, making the Janmitra card a more holistic experience as more partners get on board.

Smart City Ahmedabad envisions that, in the future, this card shall become a ubiquitous payment instrument across the city.