Bhubaneswar city bus smart card service launched

City bus passengers in Bhubaneswar can now say goodbye to the problem of coin shortage. All that they now have to do is to swipe a Smart Card on a customised machine to pay their fares.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched the Smart Card system for city buses at a function at the Janata Maidan yesterday.

To avail of the smart card service, all a passenger needs to do is to pay Rs 60 and buy his passport to cashless journey in the city buses. Those paying Rs 300 will be exempted from paying the initial cost of Rs 60 for the card that will be issued by the Bhubaneswar-Puri Transport Services Limited (BPTSL), which runs the service.

The smart card can be recharged with a minimum payment of Rs 100, the maximum amount being Rs 999. However, the re-charge amount has to be used within 30 days.

Chief operating officer of Dream Team Sahara (DTS) Sudhanshu Jena said: “The smart card will be valid in all 129 city buses, including the four air-conditioned ones, operating on 17 routes connecting Cuttack and Puri.”

People can collect smart cards either from a conductor on the bus or from the Master Canteen depot.

“One has to fill up a form and give it to the conductor to get the smart card within 24 hours,” Jena said.

The DTS is targeting to sell 5,000 smart cards in the first phase, while a total of 25,000 cards will be sold in the next few months.