Imagine we had a common mobility card for Chennai and I took a bus and then switched to Metro. How much of the fare I pay will go to MTC and how much to Metro? Since all public transit would be using the common card, all the fares would go to one account. Then it has to be accurately and efficiently redistributed. With some public transit managed by the Centre and others by the state government, and some as partnerships between the two, this is a complex process!

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Depending on our needs, we might need to use a variety of public transport (like buses, Metro, etc,). Each transport operator in Chennai uses different pricing methods. To make travel using different modes seamless and equitable, no matter how far we go, or which mode we choose, ticket prices must be more or less similar. This will ensure that people have a range of transport options; and people can pick what works best for them without worrying about the cost of the journey.

A common mobility card is one card you can pay into, which you can then use to travel on buses, trains, metros, or even share autos. It eliminates the need to carry cash for tickets and speeds up the ticketing and transfer processes. The advantages of a common mobility card include its ability to forecast transportation needs and better understand consumer behaviour. Several countries around the world have their own versions of it. In India, the National Common Mobility Card is an effort at this.