Bhubaneswar: Ushering in a new era of digital transaction in the Temple City, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Friday unveiled a Common City Payments System with two main components of Odyssey City Card and My Odyssey Centre to help citizens use a single payment option for their multi-purpose city-level use.
The card was launched in the Chief Minister’s Conference Hall in the state Secretariat Friday.
‘Odyssey City Card’ is a first-of-its-kind offering in the city that has been designed to enable residents to make quick and easy payments for an array of services like property tax, water bills and vehicle parking fees and trade licence fee for traders and businesses among others, in a seamless manner. The card can also be used for making payments at retail merchant outlets enabled with point of sale (POS) machines across the country, as well as on e-commerce websites.
The Odyssey City card has also been launched to commemorate the Men’s Hockey World Cup tournament, which is scheduled in Bhubaneswar from November 28. The initiative aims at enhancing the experience of thousands of tourists who will be visiting the city to witness the sporting extravaganza by enabling them to book tickets for fleet transport networks along with retail purchases.
Talking about the new proposition, the Chief Minister said, “The Odyssey City Card has been launched with the objective of creating a common city payment mechanism which will facilitate cashless transactions for several citizen-based services across Bhubaneswar. We are happy to note that ICICI Bank has partnered with state government to introduce the card.
“The card is a step towards leveraging technology by forging stronger partnerships which will help us in creation of a digital payment system,” executive director ICICI Bank Anup Bagchi said.
With the Odyssey City Card, residents will be able to undertake activities like retail and e-commerce transactions; purchase goods from retail stores; pay for movie tickets; dine; shop and transact on e-commerce websites across the country. It will also help them to pay their utility bills, including making payments towards BMC for water bills, property tax and trade licence fees etc.
Chief Minister Friday launched 25 My ‘Odyssey’ Centres across the Capital city. The card is currently available across the counters at 25 locations that have been set up by the BMC along with Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and the Public Health Engineer Organisation (PHEO) at an issuance fee of `50 and is valid for 5 years. The card does not levy any annual or renewal charge. Users can recharge their card by either paying cash at the designated counters or digitally through the online customer portal. Shortly, ICICI Bank along with BMC will set up a distribution network of 300 additional counters across the city for facilitating the issuance and recharge of the Odyssey cards.
