Over five years ago, the Transport Department proposed to introduce smart cards to monitor expenses incurred in offering subsidised travel.
Published: 02nd October 2021 07:03 AM
By Express News Service
CHENNAI: Over five years ago, the Transport Department proposed to introduce smart cards to monitor expenses incurred in offering subsidised travel. But the plan remains a non-starter, even as transport corporations are reeling under a fund crunch.
The Transport Department had in 2015-16 proposed to introduce smart bus pass cards with a barcode or QR code to prevent the misuse of travel concessions given to school and college students in government buses. The government had intended to use digital scanners to read these cards.
Monitoring of free bus passes was necessitated after the number of beneficiaries exceeded 32 lakh in 2015, when the State government extended the free-travel facility to students of community colleges, government-aided private ITIs, music colleges, and Chennai Corporation ITIs. Besides, students of private arts and science colleges, polytechnic and engineering colleges are eligible for a 50 per cent fee concession in government buses. Till 2013, free travel was only allowed for students of schools and government colleges, polytechnic institutes and ITIs.
The expenses incurred by transport corporations through free travel stood at Rs 440-450 crore per year till 2013-14, and rose to Rs 730 crore in the next few years. For 2021-22, the government earmarked Rs 1,300 crore for seven transport corporations.During the previous regime, the then transport minister MR Vijayabhaskar repeatedly said smart cards for students would be rolled out between 2018 and 2019. But the proposal remained on paper, allegedly due to issues in finalising contractors.
With schools set to reopen for Classes 1 to 8, the Transport Department’s engineering arm — Institute of Road Transport (IRT) — recently invited bids for issuing bus pass cards to 25.21 lakh students. “These cards will be regular plastic cards without additional security features. We have started working to issue regular bus passes,” said an IRT official.
A senior MTC official said, “Only when schools reopen will we know the actual number of beneficiaries, and only then will bus passes be issued. As of now, there is no plan to issue smart cards.”
Cost of free rides continues to rise
Free travel cost transport corporations Rs 440-450 crore per year till 2013-14, and the expenses rose to Rs 730 crore in the next few years. This year, the government has earmarked Rs 1,300 crore
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