BENGALURU: After a long-delay, cashless travel in all Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses is all set to commence in November.
Initially scheduled to be introduced in June, it was delayed as the existing contract with the ticket vending handheld devices ends only in October. The cashless machines will be deployed after this deadline.
“The new handheld electronic ticket machines (ETMs) have already been implemented in Depot 4. With the introduction of this new machine passengers will have the flexibility to choose their preferred payment method - UPI, credit or debit cards in over 8,000 KSRTC buses. This will eliminate the anxiety of tendering exact change during travel,” said a senior KSRTC official.
Explaining the delay, the official said “Pilot project is going on and we do not want to hurry up. We are waiting for the contract of the current handheld devices to end and post that all the KSRTC buses will have ETMs. Our staff will be trained to use these devices.”
Explaining the procedure, an officer said passengers will have to inform the conductor of their destination and he will input this information and the number of passengers into the ETM. It will then generate the code with the ticket fare, which should be scanned for payment.
Once the payment is successful, the ticket will be printed. He added that the device comes with a camera for validating passes and can last upto 72 hours on a single charge.