Less than 50% of MTC buses have e-ticketing machines

PWC Davidar, Additional Chief Secretary, Transport Department, said when he took up his current posting two months ago, he realised that less than 50% of the buses of Metropolitan Transport Corporation were using the ETM.

“During our inspections, we found that the machines were not being used in several buses as there was a problem with the devices. Many of the buses were using the traditional tickets. We had multiple meetings with the vendors and asked them to ensure regular maintenance of these machines. From August 20 onwards, all the 4,000-odd MTC buses within the city will have ETM,” he said, adding that they have plans to supply ETMs to all the other State Corporation buses in Tamil Nadu.

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ETMs will also help the department to manage the bus routes efficiently. Davidar said ETM helps trace the bus routes which see a maximum overload and those that see poor patronage. “The ideal situation is to make every bus stop a ‘smart’ bus stop. But that is not possible, so we resorted to the second-best solution – use the ETM. These machines are linked to a small control centre at Pallavan House. From this centre it is possible to monitor where the buses are plying, which routes are overloaded and which are hardly used at all. Using the facility, we realised that the bus between Poonamallee and Vadapalani at 5 am had only two passengers for almost two weeks!

The MTC stands to gain on a few more aspects with the increasing deployment of ETMs. “Based on where the tickets are being issued, we can see where the bus is at a particular moment, how crowded it is and also get other data. We can improve on this technology, as we can look at using smart cards or debit/credit cards with the machine” he said, adding that this will help the department understand the usage of buses better.

Davidar also added that these ETMs have the potential of being GPS enabled, to better track the vehicles. The official added that the system will first be implemented in Chennai and then in other parts of Tamil Nadu. The MTC is also in talks regarding the installation of passenger information system.