Chennai Metro officials seem confident on introducing a common mobility card for both bus and metro rail travel in the city. The decision to introduce the card has been made at the high-power committee chaired by Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan, reported The New Indian Express.

As per sources, the officials are working towards introducing this facility in 6 months. The original plan was to have a single card that can be used across different transport systems in the state including railways. Keeping the timeline in mind, the plan was changed to first introduce the card only for MTC and Chennai Metro Rail.

Commuters can swipe the card to pay for their ride in buses and metro. Chennai Metro is working on resolving the glitches with back-end integration and is hopeful of generating revenue for both the Metro and MTC.

Towards end of last year, Union Ministry of Urban Development had announced plans to introduce a common national mobility card and is in talks with banks to work out a business model.

Between establishing the infrastructure to facilitate a single card for MTC and metros and working out a business model with banks, Chennai Metro seems to have their handful. My Chennai wishes the team good luck with this initiative.