CUMTA floats bid for common ticketing system in CMA
This will help the commuters in easy transit during the switchover from one transport system to another
Representative image (File)
CHENNAI: Taking public transportation in the city will become seamless as Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) has floated a tender inviting service providers to develop and operate a mobile application for multi-modal journey planner and QR-based unified ticketing (common ticketing system) in Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA).
The Integrated Ticketing System (ITS) will provide a single ticketing system that can be used across all operators and the passengers would be able to choose between the different modes of transport like buses (MTC), suburban trains, and Chennai Metro Rail (CMRL).
This will help the commuters in easy transit during the switchover from one transport system to another.
At present all these agencies are adopting their own fare calculation rules and ticketing methodology. Apart from the public transportation, the integrated system will also provide facilities for passengers to book first and last-mile travel through Intermediate Public Transport (IPT), cabs and auto-rickshaws.
As per a CUMTA document, the mobile application will be developed in such a way that it can be used in both Android and iOS platforms. The bids will be opened on April 17.
It may be noted that Housing and Urban Development Minister S Muthusamy, in the Assembly, announced that a Journey Planner mobile application will be created and launched at Rs 15 crore. Using the app, QR code-enabled cashless tickets can be bought.
According to data, around 29 percent of commuters in the city use public transportation such as buses, Metro, and suburban trains every day.
In terms of numbers, around 35 lakh trips are made on MTC buses while 9.27 lakh trips are made on suburban trains. More than 2.5 lakh trips are made using Metro trains.
On the other hand, Chennai Metro Rail has already introduced travel cards to travel on Metro, and MTC has also taken measures to introduce bus cards.
All these cards will be integrated once a common ticketing system is launched.
On Thursday, the MTC introduced electronic ticketing machines (ETM) so that commuters could make digital payments while purchasing bus tickets.