APSRTC: Swipe cards for bus trips

Rajahmundry: APSRTC may have stopped accepting scrapped notes, but it is yet to set up point-of-sale swipe machines to allow passengers to buy tickets by swiping cards in buses in Godavari districts. The RTC has set up a few PoS machines at reservation counters and at ticket selling points at bus stations on an experimental basis. This could bring a brief relief to passengers and those who want to purchase tickets.

In East Godavari, the authorities are procuring about 1,000 PoS machines from HDFC Bank and it may take two to three weeks. As both the Centre and the state government are promoting online financial transactions, there is a huge demand for PoS machines. As per agreement of the RTC with HDFC Bank, RTC will pay 75 paise to the bank for each transaction carried out on the PoS machine. RTC authorities say that they will not charge the passengers anything extra due to this except for regular charges.

East Godavari RTC regional manager Ravi Kumar said, “We have set up a few PoS machines at our stationary offices to issue tickets by swiping the debit cards of long distance travelers and also those who are travelling on non-stop services like Rajahmundry-Kakinada. We will use PoS machines on board the buses for the benefit of our passengers shortly to sell tickets.”

In West Godavari, the RTC authorities are procuring as many as 866 PoS machines from SBI and the authorities have introduced four PoS machines on board Indra buses as a pilot project. They have also set up a few such machines at reservation and ticket selling counters meant for long distance travellers.

West Godavari RTC regional manager S. Dhananjaya Rao said, “We are expecting to introduce PoS machines on board buses in about a month’s time. We are also making efforts to avail the online transaction free of charge which means RTC need not pay any charge to the service provider for every swipe of a debit card on PoS machine.”