Bhubaneswar, Dec. 17: 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.
Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL), the special-purpose vehicle for executing the Bhubaneswar smart city project, is working to make this a reality.
"Demonetisation and the subsequent cash crunch have forced many people to opt for various modes of digital payment. Although many of us are not be prepared for this shift, we do not have other options. This is a welcome move by the city administration," said 52-year-old Jayadrath Parida, a resident of Nayapalli.
BSCL recently organised a pre-tender workshop on development of the new system. "We had a pre-tender meeting and will now work on the modalities of the project," said municipal commissioner Krishan Kumar.
"With increasing awareness on cashless transactions across the country following scrapping of the high-value notes and the consequent cash crunch, it has now become a necessity for us service providers to help make the lives of citizens easier through such measures," said a BSCL official.
At the pre-tender workshop yesterday, representatives of 17 banking organisations, including six public sector banks, three mobile banking organisations PayTm, ItzCash, Ezeepay, and PhonePe were present. The workshop was held at the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation office.
The participating organisations placed detailed presentations about the benefits of going cashless and how the system could be made transparent and user-friendly. Saheed Nagar resident Kiran Mishra said the society was rapidly going cashless after demonetisation and such a service had become necessary.
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.
The Intelligent City Operations and Management Centre will provide a digital platform for integrating different services such as traffic management, parking, bus operations, common payment card, emergency response and city incidence management along with seamless integration of utility operation requirement of the Bhubaneswar Town Centre District to be developed over 985 acres between Bapuji Nagar and Satya Nagar.
