Wheelz In motion
Nishanth Ravindran was determined not to miss the bus.
Entrepreneurship knows no age, but it is heartening to see many youngsters take the path less travelled to set up their own companies. At 26, when he could have been happily sitting in the confines of an MNC company drawing a handsome salary, Nishanth Ravindran, CEO of Technovia Info Solutions in Kakkanad, is a busy man. His mobile phone rings nonstop, the laptop is flooded with mails, the fax machine spews paper. Through all this, the man in question remains unfazed on the day his dream pilot project is taking off.
Although armed with a BTech degree, Nishanth always knew he did not want a regular 9-to-5 job. An entrepreneur was what he wanted to be and he set the foundation for that very early during his engineering days. He says, “I developed the Automated Rail System in college for a project, proposed it to the Indian Railways and even made a working model of that.” Soon after college, he set up Technovia, which entered into the service and product arena.
Today, he is in the news because of his new project titled ‘City on Wheelz’. Under the project, he has devised smart cards — Wheelz Cards — to be used by bus commuters to pay the fare, eliminating the need for cash and the quarrels and hassles over finding exact change. He also has the full support of the district administration in this endeavour. The machines that the smart cards are swiped on will be provided by Technovia. This will be very helpful to a large population of that commutes by bus daily.
Explaining the process, Nishanth says, “The customers have to register for the card online or fill the forms available in selected buses. One thousand cards with a balance of '20 will be distributed free. The cards can be recharged.”
The service has been introduced in Kochi and will soon be extended to other districts — Idukki, Pathanamtitta and Kottayam. Convincing bus operators to switch to electronic mode was the most difficult challenge and now Nishanth has four bus associations in Kochi and collector P.I. Sheikh Pareedh to support him.
Nishanth has ambitious expansion plans lined up including using the same smart cards to pay for ferries, KSRTC buses, shopping malls, toll booths and even the Metro Rail.