Travel cards introduced on a pilot basis by the KSRTC last month are a hit among passengers, giving impetus for rolling out smart cards with advanced features.
Cards of `1,000, Rs 1,500, `3,000 and `5,000 denominations were launched by Transport Minister A K Saseendran on January 23. KSRTC has collected `45 lakh so far from their sale. The daily collections have also improved by `4-5 lakh.
Cards valued at `1,000 and `1,500 are more popular. Bronze cards worth Rs 1,000 allow passengers to travel in KSRTC’s limited stop and ordinary buses within a particular district.
The silver card worth `1,500 will make them eligible to travel in limited stop and ordinary services anywhere in the state. KSRTC has so far sold 1,500 bronze and 1,200 silver cards.
The demand is such that few depots have stock of bronze and silver cards. Ninety per cent of the 92 depots do not have cards for sales,” said an officer associated with card sales. According to him, KSRTC is likely to print more cards to improve supply.
Passengers bought 463 gold cards worth `3,000 each. It can be used for travelling in fast passenger and super fast buses. However, just 25 premium cards (`5,000) have been sold so far. KSRTC printed only 100 premium cards and 2,000 bronze and silver cards.
“The cards were introduced on a pilot basis. It not only increased revenue on most routes but also made passengers more loyal to the service. The hassle of finding short change for city service was also largely solved,” said the officer.
Uralungal Labour Contract Co-operative Society made the cards for the KSRTC. With the acceptance of travel cards, KSRTC will introduce smart cards by April.
The cards can be read by conductors using the new e-ticketing machines. “We are in the process of fitting the entire fleet with the GPS machines. Once it is done, we can provide real-time information to the public through a mobile application. The project is likely to be launched by April,” said chairman and managing director of KSRTC M G Rajamanickam recently.
The mobile application will help passengers track bus availability to their destination, get schedule details, learn seat availability, make reservation in long distance service etc. – all in real time.
