EbixCash & NSDL Issue 1 Crore Smartcards for MSRTC Concession Programme
EbixCash Payment Solutions, an RBI‑regulated entity holding AD‑II, FFMC, MTSS and PPI licences, together with its distribution arm Ebix Payment Services and NSDL Payments Bank, have registered more than one crore (10 million) National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) RuPay smartcards in a five‑month period. The issuance rate averaged roughly 66,000 cards per day, equivalent to about 46 cards each minute, and is described as one of the fastest runs recorded on the RuPay network in India.
The smartcards replace traditional paper concession passes for statutory categories that include school and college students, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, freedom fighters and other notified groups. These beneficiaries are spread across approximately 16,000 villages served by the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC). Under the MSRTC Smart Card Concession Project, each passenger’s entitlement is written to the chip, allowing offline validation at the point of boarding in under a second, thereby eliminating the need for conductors to manually check paper passes.
EbixCash managed the end‑to‑end technology chain: card personalization, issuance, fare collection, transaction processing and concession validation. NSDL Payments Bank functioned as the issuing bank on the RuPay network. The programme was executed through MSRTC’s depot network, enabling enrolment at locations where passengers already travel, rather than requiring visits to banks or district offices.
For the corporation, the digital shift also modernises back‑office reimbursement. Previously, state subsidies for concessional travel were reconciled manually; now every concessional journey is logged with a timestamp, providing an auditable record for the state.
The rollout aligns with the Prime Minister’s ‘One Nation, One Card’ vision under the Digital India initiative. Because the cards are NCMC‑compliant and operate on the home‑grown RuPay network, they are not limited to Maharashtra buses and can be used on metros, suburban rail, water transport and other transit systems across India.
The programme was formally inaugurated in Mumbai by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Minister of State for Health Sunetra Pawar, Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik, and MSRTC Managing Director Dr Madhav Kusekar. T C Guruprasad, Managing Director of EbixCash Payment Solutions, noted that the speed and geographic spread of the issuance were unprecedented for a concession card programme.
Future phases will integrate retail payment functionality, auto‑recharge capabilities, and extension of the card’s use to metro and water‑transport services, eventually allowing the same card to serve as a general‑purpose payment instrument for users who may not yet possess any digital payment credential.