Bus staff not happy with Smartcard

Kochi: Thanks to a lack of awareness, the smart card based payment system for private buses in the city is facing stiff opposition from the bus employees.

According to sources, the concept is yet to pick up in the city due to reluctance by a section of the employees in the buses which have implemented the scheme.

“While the programme has received a great response from passengers, especially daily commuters to the city, the employees are yet to come to terms with it”, they said, adding that only 400 cards had been distributed in Kakkanad as against the 2000 cards announced earlier.

Admitting that the system was causing inconvenience to the bus employees, BM Sathyan, president of Kerala State Private Bus Operators Federation, attributed the issue to lack of adequate training for the employees.

“Just one round of training is not adequate for many of the employees as they are under the notion that they have to compensate the money in cases when the cards are not working’’, he said.

Having introduced the system in 15 buses plying between Kakkanad and the city, any further expansion of the project would take more time than expected, he added. Acknowledging the issue, the road transport officials, however, sought to label it as an initial hiccup.

From the user side, all that the passenger has to do is to purchase a ‘smartcard’ and recharge it once or twice a month. During travel, it’s handed over to the conductor who just flashes the smart card over the specially designed ticketing machine after entering the code for the starting and de-boarding stops.