Bhubaneswar: Creating a new era of digital transaction in the Temple City, Honourable Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today 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 in presence of Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena, Bhubaneswar MLA (Central) Bijay Kumar Mohanty and Bhubaneswar MLA (North) Priyadarshi Mishra, Development Commissioner-cum-Chairman of Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) R. Balakrishnan, Executive Director of ICICI Bank, Anup Bagchi, senior officials of the State Government and BSCL.‘Odyssey’ City Card, this pre-paid multi-purpose 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 license 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 that is scheduled in Bhubaneswar from November 28. The initiative aims at enhancing the experience of thousands of tourists who will visit 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 Hon’ble 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 that will offer significant convenience to the residents of the city. The card is a step towards leveraging technology by forging stronger partnerships which will help us in the creation of a digital payment system.”Executive Director ICICI Bank Anup Bagchi said , “ICICI Bank has always been at the forefront of introducing path breaking digital solutions which aims to offer simplicity and convenience to our customers. In line with this vision, we are delighted to associate with Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) to bring forth the ‘Odyssey’ City Card for citizens of Bhubaneswar. We believe, the card will be a one-stop solution for residents which will enable them to undertake a slew of activities.’’With the ‘Odyssey’ City card, residents will be able to undertake the following activities:• Retail and e-commerce transactions: Purchase goods from retail stores, pay for movie tickets, dine, shop and e-commerce websites across the country.• Utility bills: Make payments towards BMC for water bills, property tax and trade license fees etc.• Parking fee: Make fee payments at Pay and Park locations managed by the BMC• City-based transport: Users will soon be able to make cashless payments for bus rides across all transit networks under the Central Region Urban Transport Services (CRUT)• Honourable Chief Minister launched 25 My `Odyssey’ CentresThe card is currently available across the counter 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 Rs. 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. All the card users will be converted to full KYC customers within one year of issuance of the card which will further allow users to have a higher limit up-to Rs. 1 lakh per month. Currently, users can recharge their card up to Rs. 10,000 per month.In order to apply for or recharge the ‘Odyssey’ City Card online, customers can click on the following link: https://smartcity.icicibank.com/customer/customerportal?pagename=Odyssey To know more about the ‘Odyssey’ City card, customers can click on the following link: https://www.icicibank.com/Personal-Banking/cards/prepaid/Odyssey-card/index.page
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