The Dakshina Kannada Bus Owners Association (DKBOA), which introduced ‘Chalo’ prepaid cards for city passengers, will now introduce electronic ticket issuing machines (ETIM), which would allow passengers to purchase tickets by tapping their prepaid cards. Daily commuters can purchase tickets by tapping their card on the machine at the bus door. Three city buses on Route 27 between State Bank and Mangaladevi, which are owned by the previous president of DKBOA, have already been installed with machines.
The former president of DKBOA informed reporters that the organization wants to gradually put ETIMs into all city buses. As a test, ETIMs has been implemented on three buses. Passengers just tap their Chalo Cards, a pre-paid card introduced by the association a year ago for city bus passengers, on the machine. Passengers in the ETIM do not need to ask conductors for a ticket because the machines are stationed at the entrances. The machines are now being deployed in State Bank-Mangaladevi line buses with only one stage and a price of Rs 12 each. They are working on a prototype that will add more stages to the ETIMs, allowing them to be used on all buses.
As per the Chalo Card’s operation manager, the “Chalo Card” was introduced in association with a bank. “The card is used as a wallet for city bus travel. Passengers may reload their Chalo wallet for cashless travel in the city after getting a Chalo card by providing KYC to the bank. Conductors are now issuing tickets through a Chalo Card using a hand-held device. Passengers may use the ETIMs to tap their cards and obtain tickets without the assistance of a conductor.
GPS technology might be used to add extra stages to the ETIMs, allowing the machine to issue tickets and deduct the payment based on the entry and exit locations. The first response to the ETIM technology, as per the DKBOA president, was positive. In the future, the technology will be used in more buses, he added.
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