NDMC bags 'Digital Payments Innovation Award'

New Delhi: New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) bagged the "Digital Payments Innovation Award" at the Second Apex Conference of Smart City CEOs, organised by the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry. The two day conference, held in February received participation from CEOs, executives, and experts from 100 Smart Cities across the nation.

While receiving the award from Minister of State, Harshdeep S Puri, NDMC Chairman, Naresh Kumar said that they had launched India's first of its kind in-home Smart Bill Payment initiative for citizens.

This initiative has already distributed 1,000 fridge magnets to households in the New Delhi area, which will have unique QR codes mapped to their respective customer account numbers. With separate magnets being issued for electricity and water bills, consumers will be able to pay their utility bills online through credit/debit cards, net banking, e-wallet services, or UPI. NDMC would be able to considerably reduce collection costs and see faster realisation time for revenues.

Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) Anil Baijal, who also attended said that the municipal council sets a global benchmark in implementing such Smart Initiatives and the Minister added that "other civic bodies in Delhi should follow in their footsteps to provide more citizen-centric services". NDMC is set to distribute 5,000 payment magnets by the end of this month and expects that a total of 25,000 consumers will be able to use this service to pay their bills.