‘Dubai Smart City’ is online and Metro users can now swipe their smartphone instead of a Nol card to use the Dubai Metro, as well as RTA buses and water buses.
Ayman Ahmed, Card Payment Specialist at the Unified Automated Fare collection Department demonstrated for Emirates 24|7, the 'smart swipe' at the Road and Transport Authority (RTA) stand at the recently-concluded Gitex.
The RTA stand had a Metro check-in demo gate set up.
"For now it is only the silver Nol card that can be used as smart Nol card, but in the future the gold card will also be included," explains Abdulla Ali Al Madani, CEO of the Corporate Technical Support Services Sector at RTA.
The smart Nol card is not limited to the Metro gates; it can also be used for payment in the bus, water bus, and soon, in Dubai Taxis as well.
Possibly, parking meters will become part of the scheme too, said Ayman.
For the smart payment solution the RTA has partnered with du and etisalat, which both offer customers the possibility to transfer to a Near Field Communication (NFC) SIM card.