The Transport Department is hopeful of evolving modalities with regard to price structure of the proposed common mobility card integrating the services of Hyderabad metro, MMTS, TSRTC and private transport before the month-end.
It is awaiting the final report from State Bank of India, which has been selected as a nodal agency, and entrusted with the task of finalising the pricing pattern for different operators that would be roped in for offering the single smart card service to users.
Senior officials of the department said the SBI is expected to submit its report before January 26 enabling the authorities concerned to announce a final pricing pattern, probably before the month-end. There is no major concern in apportioning the revenue earned through CMC between the metro, MMTS and private sector players.
According to the officials, the transactions would entirely be based on smart cards and ePOS machines, enabling transfer of expenditure incurred by commuters through different modes of transport to the accounts of the respective agencies immediately.
But the pricing pattern could not be fixed immediately for RTC as the corporation offers concessional rates to different sections like students, employees and others. “The model is being finalised in such a manner that concessions for these sections will continue. The differential between the price fixed and the concession offered to these sections by the RTC will be borne by the government,” a senior official told The Hindu .
The department is examining a proposal for providing concessions to commuters using other modes of transport as it would encourage travel through mass transport systems and in turn generate more revenue to the agencies providing these services, the official added.
