Bengaluru: The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) from Monday started issuing daily passes through its electronic ticketing machines (ETM), which will save money for the corporation as it can do away with pre-printed passes and also avoid illegal passes. The BMTC is now waiting for commuter response for the initiative. BMTC officials said that this initiative will help save 25 trees per day.
“This is the first step towards a digital transport system. Passengers don’t have to ask for printed passes from conductors anymore. They can just get into buses with their identity cards and ask for conductors to issue passes from the same machines that the paper tickets are printed now. These will be same as daily paper tickets, but will contain passengers’ ID numbers. The initiative will help our staff to get the exact number of daily passes issued. This will also help us put an end to the menace of illegal passes,” a BMTC senior official told Deccan Chronicle.
The corporation received a good response from passengers when it ran the trial run in Depot 28. On Monday, it instructed all depots to issue daily passes of both Rs 70 and Rs 140 values in the same ticketing machine, which will help BMTC save 2.6 lakh paper sheets per day.
“You get 10,000 A4 sheets from one tree, and with this initiative we will help save 25 trees per day. It will also reduce the financial burden on the corporation. Soon, we will also introduce smartcards for both daily and monthly passes. This will be convenient for commuters and also reduce pressure on the corporation and our crew, who handle large amounts of cash. But that will take another two to three months,” he said.
The BBMP has already proposed a single smartcard that can be used in BMTC buses, Metro trains and some cab services, under the Bengaluru Transport-related Information and Planning System (B-TRIPS), an app-based platform. But, the source said, the proposal remained only paper as BMTC and Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Ltd did not see eye to eye on this.
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