Forgot your nol card at home and need to use public transportation? This won’t be a problem soon thanks to digital nol cards…

In January 2024, Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced that they will be upgrading the current nol card system. The upgrade will mean you won’t need your physical nol cards to tap in and out anymore… you just need your mobile phone.

Currently, this is in the testing stage. At the moment, we aren’t sure when the new system will roll out for us all to use, but we are keeping our eyes on the announcement.

RTA digital nol card Stories screengrabs

RTA shared a video via Instagram story commenting ‘RTA and Samsung are overseeing trials of the digital nol card at Metro Stations.’

Here’s what we know about the digital nol cards

Your digital nol card will function the same way as your nol card, but you just won’t have a physical version. It will be on your phone.

The official app will also be a one-stop shop for planning your routes, booking and pre-paying for your trips to create a seamless experience from start to finish. You will be able to access critical information via the platform such as account balance, travel history, ticket pricing, and fare calculations.

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You will most likely need to download the ‘nol pay’ app from the App Store or Google Play to use the digital nol card. However, we will only have confirmation on this in the future.

It may be some time before it is completely rolled out, and RTA had previously stated it could be towards the end of 2025.

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The nol card was first introduced in 2009, with the launch of the Dubai Metro. The card has been a facilitator for public transport for the last 15 years – so popular RTA added plenty more features. Once again, we can only assume these features will be available when the digital nol card rolls around.

The move to a digital nol card aligns with top global practices and is one of RTA’s strategies to position Dubai as a frontrunner in digital transformation.

Stay tuned to whatson.ae for updates 

Images: Supplied