Passengers to get to swipe own tickets in Telangana RTC buses

HYDERABAD: Soon, TSRTC city buses would not have conductors to give you bus tickets. Instead, four smart card swiping machines would be kept - two at the front and two at the back - for passengers to swipe and use the various bus services. 

While the implementation is a thing of the future, currently, the officials who are holding discussions to introduce smart cards are eyeing to have conductor-less buses on the lines of a metro or a multi-modal transport system (MMTS). The goal is also pointed towards having an integrated transport system like that in London. 

Recently, an executive committee of officials comprising various urban transport systems including stakeholders from Ola and Uber was constituted by the State government. The committee is mulling to implement the smart card facility for the denizens.

“All the buses in the GHMC limits would be enabled to access smart card facility by having two machines near the driver’s seat and two at the back. Passengers should swipe before entering and exiting the bus and the fare would be automatically debited from the person’s account and credited to the servers bank account,” informed an official.

The goal is to have conductor-less buses like Egypt or London which are doing since long, he added. When asked about the misuse of the system, giving rise to tailgating, the official said, “Enforcement would be increased manifold while penalising those found with hefty fines. Currently, there are eight enforcement teams of 64 sleuths that are on the vigil to nab offenders.”

However, the launch of the system would not be during the launch of Metro Phase-2.