BMTC e-purse to be introduced next week

Yes, it is almost there. In about a week, BMTC will introduce e-purse which can be used to pay for your BMTC tickets instead of cash. The first phase of the roll out will be experimental and this scheme will soon be expanded after KEONICS finds BOOT partners to implement the system. Ella OK but I have some quirks about the way it is implemented.

But before I start whining, here is some key information about the system.

• It uses a non-contact smart card
• Costs 65 Rs to own one and then you can 'top-up' or 'recharge' it in multiples of 50 Rs.
• In future, this card will also be usable not only for paying BMTC, but also for other public utilities and for general shopping with participating merchants.

Great! We really welcome this change and look forward to owning a e-purse soon.

Now, owing to my blogger instincts, I cant help but to crib a bit here. (Or lets say, suggesting a better way of implementation)

Based on this Indian Express article,

Every time a commuter boards the BMTC bus all he has to do is to display the card in front of a local smartcard reader installed in the bus and tell the destination to the conductor. He would then type the travel amount which will be deducted from the card, Tripathi explained.

So it is one more example of automatic but not quite !! When you have an electronic system, should you not aim for squeezing all the flexibility out of the system? All you are doing now is getting rid of currency as a medium of financial transaction and using plastic money instead. No big deal.

Lets have a look at a comparable system in Singapore (my knowledge is a few years outdated, so correct me if there are more progresses there).

This is how the system works

• You have a smart card that you have to purchase and top up (Identical to what we will have in Bangalore)
• You board the bus and hold your card against the reader ( Identical to what we will have in Bangalore)
• The reader displays your card balance and makes note of the stop (or stage) where you boarded the bus. No deductions are made at this stage.
• When you alight, you show your card at the reader at the exit door and now (since the system knows which stop you boarded), based on the distance you travel, a deduction is made.
• If some smart guy tries to alight the bus without showing his card to the reader (this is possible, the exit doors are not monitored), the next time he boards any bus, he will be automatically charged a penalty!!
• If you are continuing a journey from another bus/train, the system already knows you and gives you a suitable discount.

Does this system not make more sense? No extra investment to what is already being planned. Some modified software will do this job. They already have a GPS system on many buses so they can link this to automatically recognise the fare stages or in the worst case the driver can push a button after every stage.

The advantages

• Role of the conductor is eliminated and thats a lot of save manpower.
• The driver concentrated mostly on driving and not on calculating the fare for each passenger.
• Integrates great with Metro and other services when they are ready.
• Easy to implement complicated tariff system (like treating break journeys as continuous one etc).

I think while they are at it, they should implement a system like this rather than the simple one they have in mind. That one is not going to solve many problems. Given the fact that it will take some time to get the public educated and trusting for this kind of a change, they would rather do it in one go than two.

Incidentally, the news articles on this do not mention where we can get the cards recharged. I presume they will have machines at selected locations but would be great if they can provide a facility at major bus stops where people can use cash/cards to charging this thing up.