CHENNAI: The common mobility card could finally become a reality with the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) likely to hold its first meeting on November 17 and special officer I Jeyakumar stating they are pushing for it.
CUMTA is seeking to appoint a transaction advisor to study the implementation of mobility card taking a cue from London and Singapore models. “The advisor will study the present system and advise on the future system design. He will help us in formulating the tender and implementation too,” said Jeyakumar.
“We are not touching the onboard ticketing which is prevalent now. MTC and Chennai Metro will continue to have separate ticketing. Even railways will continue to issue tickets through the UTS app,” he said.
“Our ticketing is journey planner-cum-integrated offboard ticketing. As an app-based ticketing system, it won’t interfere with the standalone ticketing model,” added Jeyakumar. To a query on whether electronic ticketing machines available with bus conductors could scan the common mobility card, Jeyakumar said the ETMs will have a QR code, which will factor the common mobility card. “It will take another 15 months to implement it once the tender is finalised,” said Jeyakumar.