HYDERABAD: Imagine an online application that will help chart your journey even to the last mile, with ticket prices, time duration and traffic congestion data all made available to help the user take an informed travel choice. This is exactly what the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd is planning on achieving, through a Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) under the Ministry of Urban Development.
When this Integrated Ticketing System (ITS) system becomes operational a commuter will be able to choose travel options ranging from a ferry to a taxi aggregator service and plan their journey down to the last mile, said GP Hari, Additional General Manager (AGM) Kochi Metro Limited.
“As part of the plan, auto rickshaws and private buses have formed cooperative societies who will slowly be roped into the platform. They will thus become eligible for provident funds and fixed salaries, their services and tariff rates too will be streamlined,” said Hari.
He was speaking at a session on the Implementation models for adopting ITS in public transport at the 10th Urban Mobility India conference and Exhibition organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Sunday. “But for such an ITS model to work all public transport sectors must have an open data policy,” opined Jyot Chadha Director Urban Innovation, WRI India Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. “We are talking about different stakeholders sharing pricing and other data in real time, this means we need to relook to open data policy which is at a draft stage in India,” she added.
Speaking of how ticket payments are better done via an open loop payment system (debit/ credit card), Nalin Bansal, Vice President and head of National Payments Corporation of India, said, “ The integration of a closed loop system where state Transport Units operates the payment card could end up costing more for the STUs due to higher maintenance cost. It’s better to adopt a hybrid card that has two chips embedded that can make digital payments to merchants and also load money for paying ticket fares.”