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You could travel ’ticketless’ on BMTC buses from November

With smart card, you can swipe for rides and shop 

“Please tender exact change” may be a thing of the past in Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) buses, as the city’s largest transport corporation has set a target for rolling out ‘open-loop smart cards’ for its commuters in November this year. 

Besides sparing you spats with conductors over small change, the smart card will also let you make purchase in any merchant outlet. Bishwajit Mishra, director (IT) BMTC, told DH: “The back-end work related to software development is in its final stages. The process was delayed as the National Payment Corporation of India, which is testing the project, had suggested certain modifications. We are planning to launch the project on November 1 this year,” he said and added that the cards will be first issued to closed group to find out if it is working fine, before putting it for public use. 

“These prepaid cards (Europay, MasterCard and Visa), which are designed to provide a cashless commuting experience, work like a wallet. They can be used at any Rupay-enabled merchant terminals in the country for a purchase transaction. We also want to integrate these cards with the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd’s (BMRCL) system in future,” Mishra added. Adopted under the BMTC’s ambitious Intelligent Transport System (ITS) project, the cards will be read by Electronic Ticketing Machines (ETM) used by bus conductors and will also provide real-time data to the transport corporation’s head-office. This will prevent revenue leakage,” he said. 

Another BMTC official said the corporation has plans to convert all the monthly and student passes into smart cards in a phased manner. “Smart cards will be issued at an annual fee of Rs 25. There has been no discussion on providing discounts to card holders. It’s transferrable. There are about four lakh students and nearly two lakh monthly passes,” he said. 

Later, the smart cards would be issued and loaded at BMTC issuance counters such as pass counters, and Traffic and Transit Management Centres (TTMCs) among others.  

The BMRCL has already issued smart cards to Metro commuters since the Baiyappanahalli-MG Road (Reach 1) was thrown open to the public. 

About 55 lakh passengers use 6,400 BMTC buses every day and the smart card will be of great advantage to the commuters.