Smart cards for metro bus passengers soon

Charanjit Singh Teja
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, February 7

Keeping in view the long queues at ticket windows of metro bus stations, officials of Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) have planned to introduce smart cards for passengers. Earlier, the Punjab Bus Metro Society had planned to issue smart cards to the regular passengers after three months. Now the plan has been changed to come up with such cards soon.

As the metro bus service has started receiving an overwhelming response, the staff at ticket windows have been facing a heavy workload. Moreover, passengers have to wait in queues for long to get tickets.

“A person can’t issue 3,500 tickets a day so we have decided to launch the smart card service immediately. The bus service is free for three months. We will charge nominal fee for the smart card. It will be convenient for the passengers who travel in routine. After getting the smart card, there will be no need to get tickets,” said Inderjit Singh Chawla, Chief Managing Director, BRTS.

Moreover, the BRTS authorities have also launched a mobile application to track the buses, locate nearby stations, get tickets and recharge smart cards. However, the service is free till April so this application is not useful for the passengers for now.

It is worth mentioning here that the metro bus service is getting a good response from residents, especially students and workers, who prefer metro buses to other modes of transportation.

Officials say that 30,000 to 40,000 people travel by metro buses every day.