The Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways is now looking beyond highway upgradation. It is planning a countrywide state-owned bus service that can boast of completely automated ticketing system. A corpus of Rs 25 crore will be set aside in this year’s Union Budget for the ministry to introduce automated ticketing in state transport corporations and the country’s IT capital Bangalore will be the first to see the system unroll.“As a pilot project, the ministry has decided to introduce the automated ticketing system on buses run by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC). The ministry will give a grant of about Rs 1 crore to BMTC this year itself for installation of automated ticket vending machines in their buses. The total cost of getting the system in all the 4,000 BMTC buses will be Rs 3.5 crore. Initially, BMTC will get automated system in 660 buses. With the system in place, there will be no need for a conductor on buses, passengers will key in their destinations and an automated ticket with the fare amount will be printed out to them,” said a senior official from the ministry.BMTC has been chosen for the pilot project because of its consistent good performance, incorporation of IT, reasonable profits and less expenditure per kilometre as against most of the cash strapped state transport organisations (STO). BMTC is expected to complete the pilot project in 18 months time and is said to have shortlisted vendors for supply of the automated ticketing machines. In fact, it has had an experience with automatic ticket vending machines on its Volvo bus service.“We will assist all STOs and spread out funds among them. However, it has been decided that funds will be given out first to STOs which are showing good performance and are turning around the system to a more successful model,” added the official.The ministry is formulating a scheme for strengthening public transport system in the country. The scheme, said officials, will ask states to develop integrated, world-class public transport systems through public private partnership, ensure fund availability for fleet modernisation with latest technologies like GPS and automatic fare collection, upgradation of bus terminals and bus stops, detailed route surveys and focus on road safety. State and Union territories will be able to avail of the ministry’s financial assistance for their schemes only once they have worked out a Detailed Project Report, agreed to issue bus permits on a strictly competitive basis and identified profitable and non-profitable routes.
