One card for all services in smart city Bhubaneswar soon

Bhubaneswar: A single card to make payments for city bus tickets, parking, civic services such as public health, holding tax, water tax and booking of Kalyan mandaps is in the making that would benefit the denizens of Bhubaneswar.

The Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) has planned a single smart card which will work as a cash card as well as a card to avail different services provided by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA).

The BMC and BDA officials held meeting with the representatives of 17 banks including six public-sector ones and mobile banking facilitators such as PayTm, ITZ cash, Ezee pay and Phone Pe.

The proposed common payment system would be part of the pan-city proposal of the proposed Smart City Project of Bhubaneswar, in which an Intelligent City Operations and Management Centre (ICOMC) will work to look after and handle various services.

A common payment card (CPC) will be issued to the citizens by the bank with whom the BSCL will tie up with.

Official sources said the card holder needs to have an account with the partner bank.

“If anyone wants to avail the CPC he has to open an account which will be free of cost. The existing customers will be given the card for free. It is like a debit card,” said a BSCL official.