Naga Chokkanathan

BMTC plans to implement cashless travel from October 2017. Customers can purchase a smart card for Rs 30; then they can load it with money; swipe it in any bus against the fare.

I feel this puts a lot of extra work (and learning) on the bus conductor. In a city like Bangalore, this can be easily avoided with the use of Mobile Apps Self Service:

* Get on a bus, take out your mobile phone, open BMTC ticketing app, select your route (regular routes are automatically shown; starting point picked automatically using GPS) and get an eTicket, Money automatically deducted from the wallet
* Those without a mobile phone/app/internet connectivity can opt for the manual ticketing: swipe their card in the conductor’s machine

I feel this hybrid approach can help in an easy implementation of this important initiative.

Another alternative could be: adding swiping machines to the existing ticketing machines themselves. That will avoid a lot of unlearning/relearning for the conductors.

But, a long term solution would be to issue a chip-based smart card to every traveller:

* Just get on a bus (CHECK IN), with the card in your pocket
* System uses GPS to find out where you are starting your journey; You are issued an eTicket (SMS) with a minimum fare (Rs 5 at this moment) which is deducted from your wallet
* If you don’t have enough money on the wallet, system alerts you immediately to recharge (which you can comfortably do before you get down from the bus)
* Get down from the bus (CHECK OUT), with the card in your pocket; Once again, system uses GPS to find out the total travel distance, deducts the money (on top of Rs 5) automatically, puts a negative credit if there is not enough money: This will be adjusted in your next recharge

This is a no-swipe solution and can be implemented easily. Smart cards will become costlier (not sure by how much: today it is Rs 30 for swipe-based smart cards), but regular travellers will prefer this I believe.