Chennai, June 10 (BPNS)

The Tamil Nadu transport corporation is planning for a cashless ticketing system and is in talks with the Chennai Metro corporation to introduce a national mobility card to integrate all public transport systems. German Bank KfW will provide funding to the tune of Rs 70 crore for the project.

The three transport corporations of Tamil Nadu are into cashless ticketing systems with feasibility study for the same being conducted. Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), Chennai and Madurai, and Coimbatore transport divisions of the Tamil Nadu transport corporations are into introduce cashless ticket system in the buses. The payment will be done through mobility cards.

While swapping of cards at the entry and exit points like in Metro trains is not feasible in transport buses, the Radio  Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is being used and RFID technology-powered GPS-enabled payment system is being considered.

An official of the Tamil Nadu State transport corporation told BPNS that tenders for the RFID-enabled GPS mobility payment system will be made soon. The transport corporation officials told BPNS that a mobile App for recharging the mobility card is also being planned. This will help the commuters to pay the ticket fare through mobile apps such as Google pay and Paytm.

The state transport corporation is planning to introduce the cashless payment system by the end of 2022 and all the modern technological support for the transport corporation is being mulled for the project. It may be noted that several attempts were made earlier to introduce similar smart cards for Chennai metro and MTC but failed due to a delay in upgrading the ticketing device used in MTC buses.