City buses could have electronic ticketing machines in two months

The BMTC will soon have new electronic ticketing machines (ETMs) with its officials working to finalise the tender for the automatic fare collection system.

Ever since the agreement with Trimax ended in 2019, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has been operating without reliable ETMs, which earlier helped streamline the fare collection and avoided long queues in the depot, besides checking irregularities.

Over the last two years, the BMTC has been largely operating with paper tickets.

A tender was floated in April 2021 to select a system integrator who can design, develop, implement, and maintain an automated fare collection system, which brings mobile-based payments and seeks to integrate a common mobility card.

However, the bidding was delayed with officials stating that the pandemic has disrupted the process.

A senior official said eight companies had applied for the tender of which only three passed the pre-qualification round.

“The technical proposal of the three companies will be scrutinised in the coming days following which we can open the financial bid. We hope to complete the process within the next two months,” the official said.

Once the work is awarded, the official said, the contractor will have four months’ time to implement the new system. The automatic fare collection aims to help the BMTC transition into a future of cashless transactions. It also helps in eliminating manual interventions to bring transparency and save time.

Buy BMTC passes on app

The BMTC on Wednesday launched a new app in association with a private company to offer daily, weekly and monthly passes for all buses (air-conditioned and non-AC) through a mobile app. Officials said the introduction of online tickets will take time.

Also Read: BMTC tickets on private app from April 6

Passengers can download the Tummoc app from the Google Play Store and create a profile. First, the type of pass has to be selected, the user has to fill the required details, upload a photo, and provide four digits of an identity card.

“After this, the pass preview screen is displayed for verification. After reconfirming the details, the user can proceed to make their payment. The digital pass will be generated with a unique identity, validity, and a dynamic QR code,” a release from the BMTC said.

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