City residents will be able to access several services, including transport and parking facilities, with a smart card if a plan under the city Corporation’s Smart City projects becomes a reality. The ‘My Smart Tvm Card,’ an integrated, contactless payment card, is expected to be rolled out as part of the project.
With this smart card, residents will be able to pay for a host of services from e-autorickshaws to online payments of water bills and smart parking and payment for electronic vehicle charging stations. Other services proposed to be integrated into the system include payments related to the Corporation, Motor Vehicle Department or Police Department, tourism fee collection, and fee for e-governance services.
Supermarkets, shops
“The Smart City Thiruvananthapuram Limited has now issued a call for tenders for a banking partner for the smart card project. We need to hold discussions with all the departments for integrating their services with this smart card. Integrating even supermarkets and other shops into the smart card is also under consideration,” said an official handling Smart City projects in the city Corporation.
Major cities across the world have smart travel cards, pre-loaded with money, which allows the public to access all kinds of transport. The banking partner of the project is expected to develop, operate and maintain card management systems to cover the card procurement, card personalisation, issuance, dispatch and delivery at various touch-points such as bus terminals and parking slots.
Top-up points
Card-dispensing touch points will be set up at least in 25 locations, which will also serve as top-up points for the card. The top-up can also be done through online, mobile platform, QR code, customer care facilities and bank offices. Point of sales machines or utility payment touch points will be set up near parking stations and inside buses and autorickshaws so that the citizens can seamlessly make payments. The system will be integrated to the ICCC (Integrated Command Control Centre) and TSCCC (Traffic Safety Command Control Centre), which are coming up as part of the Smart City project.
