By December this year, commuters in Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) buses will find that they no longer need to argue with conductors about tendering exact change. The reason being that the corporation plans to launch a prepaid common mobility smart card.
Commuters can scan this smart card, preloaded with cash, on the electronic ticket machine (ETM) to be made available with conductors.
Kumar Pushkar, Director (IT), BMTC, told The Hindu that the radio frequency identification chip-based contactless card will be of three types. They are: a prepaid card (personalised and non-personalised) that can be preloaded with a maximum amount of Rs. 10,000; a debit combination card jointly issued by Axis Bank and BMTC for transit, and a credit combination card that may be used as transit cards with another key, he added.
Mr. Pushkar said that 90 per cent of the commuters were likely to buy a prepaid card. There was no limit to preload the credit and debit combination cards, which could be used in ATMs. Mr. Pushkar said that tickets would be issued till commuters shifted to the smart card system. He said that these cards could be recharged online, through ETMs, or at bus stations and traffic and transit management centres. The smart card technology is based on open source software and is futuristic as it can be adopted by taxis or autorickshaws, he said. “Our cards can also be used in the Namma Metro,” he said.
