MTC to bring out mobility card, geo-coding of bus stops over: P.W.C. Davidar

The State Transport Department plans to create a common platform for transport ticketing by bringing out a mobility card from the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), said P.W.C. Davidar, Additional Chief Secretary, Transport Department.

Delivering the inaugural address of the Chevening Alumni India lecture series 2018 at the Chennai Metro Railway Limited (CMRL) office on Thursday, he said talks had been held between the MTC and the National Payment Corporation of India to bring out the common transit card. As preparatory work, the MTC had completed geo-coding of all bus stops in Chennai with work to be taken up in the rest of the State.

Mr. Davidar, speaking on the theme ‘Urbanscapes – Contours of Change and Connectivity: Intelligent Transport Systems’, talked about the challenge of running the eight State Transport Corporations, which have been suffering from a serious financial crunch. He said, “Before the fare revision, the STCs were suffering a loss of ₹9 crore per day and now, the loss has increased to ₹12 crore.”

He also talked about the difficulty in moving to intelligent transit systems, which had their own distinct legacy software without being web-enabled for automation.

Pankaj Bansal, Managing Director, CMRL, in his presidential address, stressed on the importance of densification of transit corridors by providing additional floor space index.

Bharat Joshi, British Deputy High Commissioner, and B. Chandra Mohan, Secretary, IT Department and a Chevening scholar, also participated.