UPSRTC to introduce smart cards for passengers soon

VARANASI: Frequent travellers of Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) will soon be able to pay for their tickets with a swipe of smart cards instead of carrying Monthly Seasonal Ticket (MST) in paper form. The corporation is all set to introduce MST smart cards for those who have to frequently travel.
According to regional manager, UPSRTC, PK Tiwari, a proper work plan is being chalked out for this.Apart from the MST smart cards, there will be three other types of smart cards for passengers. The first type will enable the passengers to travel up to a distance of 700 km, the second type will enable the passengers to travel up to 1,000 km while with the third kind of smart card the passengers will be able to travel up to 1,500 km.
There will be separate smart cards for ordinary buses, gold line category and luxury buses. All the three types of smart cards will be of different colours for demarcation. Each smart card will have a unique number and a fixed validity time written on it. An amount of approximately Rs 50 will be charged as the basic charge for issuing smart cards and Rs 10 will be charged for the renewal of the cards.
Tiwari said these smart cards can be recharged by paying cash at the ticket booth at bus depots. The service will be available any time throughout the day. The functioning of these smart cards will be as similar to that of the traveller’s smart card issued by Delhi Metro, he said.
However, it has not been made clear to the officials yet whether the facility will be available in the city buses or not.
It may be noted here that the facility will not only help in reducing the rush at ticket counters of the bus depots but will also ensure easy travelling and reduce the manual work of the UPSRTC thereby increasing the efficiency of the corporation.
With the smart cards will passengers will not have to suffer the haste and rush for reissuing of MST passes. Besides, one can also avail several benefits including the discounts in ticket fares and packages for travelling. Special package for students will also be provided with smart cards.
“The introduction of smart cards is the part of the centralisation of all the bus depots. The work is being done by a private firm which is carrying out the entire work related to computerisation of the bus depots of the corporation. In the first phase, Lucknow and Ghaziabad bus stations are being provided with the smart cards facilities. The smart cards can be introduced in the Varanasi region in coming 3 to 4 months,” Tiwari informed further.
It may be noted here that from Varanasi depot of UPSRTC, more than 5,000 passengers, mainly office goers and students carrying MST, travel regularly in different buses.
The corporation is in process of computerisation and centralisation of its bus depots. There are plannings to introduce modern ticketing counter, ATMs, LCD screen to display the time of arrival and departure of buses and GPRS and CCTV cameras as well.