Bids invited for ‘one city one ticket system’: MMRDA chief

The work on 'one-city-one-ticket' system will soon see the light of the day as bids for this ticketing system commence. This was confirmed by RA Rajeev, Metropolitan Commissioner of MMRDA, during a webinar on the ‘ The changing contours of Mumbai’.

Speaking at the session organised by The Free Press Journal and Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA), Rajeev said, “We are implementing the one-city-one-ticket system. We devised it during the lockdown period.”

In this system, a QR code will be generated and money will be transferred to the respective entities in charge of different modes of transport. Thus, Western Railway will get the money due to it. The Ola cab service provider will get the sums that are meant for it. The transfers will depend on the choices each customer makes for his or her mode of travel. “SBI is the banker for the project and it was also selected through the bidding process,” added the MMRDA chief.

He was speaking at the session which was a conversation that R N

Bhaskar, Consulting Editor, FPJ; Shishir Joshi, CEO and Founder, Project Mumbai; and Sayli Udas Mankikar, Senior Fellow, ORF Mumbai had with him.

During the session, he explained the changes Mumbai will see in the coming years. Rajeev said that MMRDA’s projects will become more prominent in the city in two phases. By 2022, 180 kms of metro lines will be completed and the remaining 157 kms will be completed by 2025-2026. “By the end of 2022, the longest sea bridge in India — Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) — will also be completed.

By the time completed, Mumbai will have a ring road, which would allow a traveller to take the MTHL to Navi Mumbai. A metro to the coastal road, and back to the city.

For most of the other projects — like Wester n Express Highway — access control has been delayed due to COVID-19. He is optimistic that COVID-19 delays will not be reflected in the long-run projects but the delay will be visible in projects that were supposed to be completed by December 2020. “In 2021, we will be inaugurating two metro lines (Line 2A and 7) — Dahisar to D N Nagar and Dahisar to Andheri,” he said.