There will be no hustle bustle of commuters clamouring to buy tickets for the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in Ahmedabad. The commuters will have the luxury of buying tickets for their journey from special ticket windows at the BRTS stations instead of awaiting their turn on crowded buses.
The Ahmedabad Janmarg Ltd (AJL) is introducing an off-board ticketing system to make the process easy for the commuters. There will initially be paper tickets, but the AJL will duly modernise the ticketing system over a period of time.
In this regard, the AJL will introduce smart cards for commuters. Regular BRTS passengers will be able to buy these smart cards, which will function similar to the monthly pass system for state transport and AMTS buses. The AJL will, however, offer many schemes for the users of their smart cards.
The commuters will be able to buy the smart cards at Rs500 apiece and the fare for each journey will be deducted from this amount. For example, for a journey from the RTO to Nehrunagar costing Rs5, this amount will be deducted from the Rs500 paid for the smart card. Hence, the commuters will not have to carry money for the fare every time they travel on the BRTS buses.
Also, paper tickets will be available at the special ticket windows at the BRTS stations. There will be turnstile machines near the ticket windows, where the commuters can have their tickets punched to allow them entry inside the stations.
There will also be measures to ensure that there is no cheating in the case of these turnstile machines. A commuter who buys a ticket for the journey from the RTO to Nehrunagar will not be able to travel up to the Dharnidhar bus station as the turnstile machine at the end of such a journey will detect this. In all likelihood, the commuter will have to pay a hefty fine to the officials at the BRTS stations.
