Kochi1 cards from Saturday

Kochi: The Kochi1 cards, the prepaid smartcard developed by the KMRL jointly with the Axis Bank, can be used in city private buses from Saturday when Chief Secretary Tom Jose would launch the facility. The commuters will be provided a discount of five per cent in ticketing charges upon using the prepaid cards.

“Initially 50 buses will accept the prepaid cards. The facility will be extended to all the 1000 buses in another two months. The initiative is part of developing a single-ticketing system for various modes of transport,” said a senior KMRL official.

The Axis Bank, which is assisting the KMRL in the initiative, has procured 500 specially-made ticketing machines for the purpose. “The trial of ticketing machines held in 15 private buses was largely successful. We’re planning various initiatives to popularize the card,” said APM Muhammed Hanish, KMRL MD. “We’ve expressed our satisfaction over working of the smartcard reading ticketing machines being experimented in 15 buses in different routes. Besides facilitating quick ticketing process, it helps in avoiding ‘change shortage’ issue,” said Nizar Karukapadath of the ‘MY METRO BUS SERVICES LLP’, one of the seven companies formed by private bus operators in the city.

Initially there were a few issues experienced by the bus crew including the time taken for printing of the tickets and the machines getting into off-mode automatically upon a few seconds of inaction to save battery. "All these were corrected," sources said.