Dubai: Commuters in Dubai will not have to carry their NOl cards as they will soon be able to use their mobile phones to pay for metro and other means of public transport.
Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) on Sunday has annunced launching of ‘virtual Nol card’ which they can download on their mobile phone. Instead of tapping the Nol cards at the electronic gates to enter or leaving the metro stations, passengers will simply be able to use their phone to pay for their journeys on public buses and the metro.
The new initiative was launched by the RTA at GITEX 2019 exhibition which started in Sunday at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
“It is part of a new package of solutions and applications in support of Nol card users enabling the commuters smooth payment of public transport fare as well as other payments such as parking fees, shopping at certain retail outlets, and the petrol station among others,” said a senior RTA official.
“We are keen to familiarise the public with this initiative for buying the virtual Nol card and saving it in their mobile phones, said Mohammed Al Khayat, Director of Automated Fare Collection at RTA’s Corporate Technology Support Services Sector
He said that virutal Nol card users will be able to top-up the card directly from their credit cards, which are saved in their phones. The NFC feature has to be enabled in smartphones of riders to use the virtual Nol card to pay fares for metro, bus, tram and marine transport services. .
“RTA is planning to roll out the virtual nol card in the third quarter of 2020. Later on, all the existing Nol card functions will be added to the virtual card. Offering this initiative couldn’t have come at a better time as Dubai is heading towards the hosting of a big event, Expo 2020,” he added.
The initiative, he said, would boost the government drive of ranking Dubai as the smartest city in the world, and contribute to realising a host of RTA’s strategic goals: Smart Dubai, People Happiness and Asset Sustainability (namely green economy and paperless government).
Virtual nol is part of Digital Nol Strategy 2018-2022 aimed at achieving the smart transformation of payment means and using advanced technologies in transit services,” concluded Al Khayat.
