Two automated ticket booking systems on the city's suburban railways are expected to be integrated soon to allow commuters to use just one smart card to travel on all public transport.
MUMBAI: Two automated ticket booking systems on the city's suburban railways are expected to be integrated soon to allow commuters to use just one smart card to travel on all public modes of transport in the financial capital.
Currently commuters on the suburban railways use the Automated Ticket Vending Machines (ATVM) or the 'Go Mumbai' smart card to purchase unreserved tickets.
However, the Center for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) and the Railway Board is considering allowing the 'Go Mumbai' card to be utilised on their existing ATVM machines as well.
"CRIS has not yet decided on the issue but it is a policy which could come in the near future," Prakash Kamat, head of Kaizen Automation, developers of the 'Go Mumbai' card, said.
The move would also allow the 'Go Mumbai' card which can presently be used only for single journeys, to be used to purchase multiple tickets through the ATVM machines installed at all suburban railway systems in the city by CRIS, he said.
"CRIS has shown interest in allowing the 'Go Mumbai' card to be used on their systems as they have no prior experience in management of smart card systems," Kamat said.
The 'Go Mumbai' card is presently usable on the suburban railways of Central Railways and to purchase monthly passes for the city's public bus service.
"Within three months we plan to install our machines at all 26 stations of the Western Railways," Kamat said.
The Western Railways is also considering the idea of putting at least one to two centres for refilling the cash amount of the card at each station, Kamat said.
"We have also requested Central Railways for more loading points where commuters can refill the cash amount stored on their cards," he said.
Kaizen is also working towards installing 3400 GPS (Global Positioning System)-based validators on the city's BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking) buses to allow 'Go Mumbai' card users to use the smart card for single journeys.
"Initially we will install these card readers on 800 buses spread across six depots in the next three to four months and by March 2009 commuters should be able to use the Go Mumbai card on railways and BEST buses," Kamat said.
The card has been received fairly well in Mumbai.
Railway authorities and Kaizen are also in talks to reduce or do away with the additional Rs 5 charge which is levied for the use of the card, but so far no solution has been reached.
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