One Card Does It All: Good News For Chennai Metro And Metropolitan Transport Corporation Commuters

Tamil Nadu (TN) government plans to introduce a smart card with which commuters can travel on Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses as well as the Chennai Metro Rail, reported The Hindu.

TN’s Minister of Transport M R Vijaybhaskar has said that government will be introducing a smart travel card for both the services and trial run for the smart card has been completed. He was speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration of online payment and renewal of licenses through the Parivahan Portal on Monday (1 October).

“It is at an advanced stage with all necessary technical works accomplished for the launch,” he said.

He also assured that the MTC commuters will be able to access information about the bus stops, arrival time and departure time of the buses on their mobiles as the geo-coding of the bus stops has been done.

All the buses belonging to the eight transport corporations of the state, under the geo-coding project will soon be installed with GPS device, minister said.

TN will be launching 475 new buses this week and a total of 100 electric buses have been proposed to be purchased, out of which 80 will go to the MTC and 20 to the Coimbatore city.

The government is planning to operate 22,000 buses for Deepawali, said Vijaybhaskar.