NEW DELHI, Nov 29: Retail customers and merchants in four cities, including Mumbai and Delhi, will be able to use digital rupee , from December 1 with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announcing the launch of the much-awaited first phase of the digital form of the Indian currency for the retail segment.

The pilot would initially cover four cities  Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar and later extend to Ahmedabad, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna and Shimla, the central bank said on Tuesday.

The scope of the pilot may be expanded gradually to include more banks, users and locations as needed, the RBI said.