BANGALORE: The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has decided to introduce smart cards for those, including students, who hold passes.

By introducing the cards, KSRTC intends to offer hassle-free travel and prevent misuse of passes. The corporation intends to use the card for various purposes, including as a debit card, and offer discounts and loyalty points for regular users.

KSRTC managing director M.R. Sreenivasa Murthy told The Hindu that the corporation had placed orders for 3.5 lakh smart cards after finalising the tenders. Electronic ticketing machines (ETMs) being used by the conductors had been enabled to validate smart cards. Each card would cost around Rs. 60, Mr. Murthy said.

The smart card had space to store information and could be programmed according to the corporation's needs, said C.S. Sheshadri, Chief Systems Manager.

Personal details of the pass-holder; photograph; pass category; amount in credit; and other details would be digitally stored in the card and the details could be read by the ETM. This would prevent misuse of the card, he said. KSRTC would replace the season passes, which were on paper cards, with smart cards before initiating the exercise with regard to student passes. The card should have a life of at least three years for enhanced utility, Mr. Sheshadri said.

K.A. Rajkumar, General Manager (Traffic), said that to encourage cash-less transactions, the corporation intended to promote use of smart cards in a big way. KSRTC was contemplating to offer discounts for those who used smart cards regularly, he said.

While the corporation's receipts were secure with advance deposit by the card-holders, it prevents any pilferage by conductors. By designing the cards as debit cards, frequent KSRTC commuters could use these cards during travel, Mr. Rajkumar said.

With the North East Karnataka Road Transport Corporation too deploying ETMs in all its 2,700 buses, the KSRTC was planning to introduce smart cards, officials said. While KSRTC had already deployed ETMs on all its buses, only North West Karnataka Road Transport Corporation TC was lagging behind, they said.

KSRTC conductors said that ETMs, weighing 450 gm each, were easy to operate and had reduced their burden. Earlier, they had to carry a ticket box weighing one kilogram, with multiple denominations of tickets. They had to pick more than one ticket while issuing tickets and enter the trip sheet after crossing every stage. With ETMs, tickets could be issued at the press of a button and the ETMs would generate the trip sheets.

One of the conductors wrote to Mr. Murthy saying that ETMs not only lessened their burden of issuing tickets, but also saved them from "harassment" by checking squads.

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