Although Bangaloreans have been talking about Common Mobility Card—which allows seamless public travel across different modes including trains, buses and taxis—for a long time now, the facility will not be introduced here before March.
MK Shankarlinge Gowda, the then principal secretary to the transport department, had announced in July that Common Mobility Cards would be available in the state by November.
November has come and gone and Bangalore continues to wait for the cards.
Meanwhile, the Common Mobility Cards were introduced in Delhi on Tuesday. The card, dubbed as More, works on the same principle as the smartcard used for Bangalore Metro. According to public transport departments in the city, a Common Mobility Card for Karnataka cannot be done before March. Bangalore will have to continue waiting as the various agencies sort out issues.
“BMTC is definitely on board with regard to the Common Mobility Cards. We already have the MBT (Metro-Bus Transit) for commuters who travel in the Metro and the BMTC. But these are paper passes that have only a day’s validity,” the BMTC spokesperson said.
The Metro’s card system can be applied to BMTC but the BMTC does not have Electronic Ticketing Machines (ETMs). “We have to make our tickets adaptable with the Metro’s ticketing system, for which we need ETMs. But this will start rolling in only by March perhaps,” the BMTC spokesperson said.
Regarding the Common Mobility Card, BMRCL spokesperson BLY Chavan said there are various things to be sorted out such as sharing, sales and so on. He said work to implement the common card cannot proceed unless the various systems come on board.
The BMRCL is also in talks with the unions of autorickshaw drivers to have a common card system. Nevertheless, this too will take time. BV Raghavendra, general secretary of the Auto Rickshaw Driver’s Union , said, “We have been talking to the BMRCL. They have asked us to conduct a survey to find out more about what the response will be like, popular areas to where Metro commuters take an auto and so on. This will definitely take some time.”
S Mani, deputy railway manager, South Western Railways, said considering that it is a pan-India policy, the decision would have to come from the higher officials. There has been no decision in this regard yet. He added that the fare system of the Metro and railways is different and he could not comment on how the two would be managed.
