The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : KSRTC to retry ticketing machines

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 23, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

KSRTC to retry ticketing machines

By Govind D. Belgaumkar

BANGALORE, MAY 22. The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), which burnt its fingers earlier trying to equip its conductors with ticketing machines, is making a second bid at it. The corporation hopes that the advanced technology being employed this time will ensure success.

The KSRTC was the first road transport corporation (RTC) in India to equip 50 of its conductors with the machines over two years ago. However, the machines led to delay in issue of tickets as they took more time to generate them, following which they were withdrawn.

But technological advancements and successful use of new-generation equipment by RTCs in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi have now emboldened the KSRTC to take a re-look at the possibility of their use.

The Managing Director of the KSRTC, V. Madhu, told The Hindu that advanced machines, which the manufacturers had demonstrated recently, would reduce the time taken to issue tickets.

The new machines, each priced at Rs. 7,000 to Rs. 8,000, used thermal printers and nickel metal hydrate batteries, while the old ones used dot matrix printers and nickel cadmium batteries, C.S. Seshadri, Systems Manager, KSRTC, said. The new ones would print tickets within one to 1.5 seconds, while the old ones took several seconds, he added. The new machines had an enhanced memory cache.

Mr. Madhu said the KSRTC would decide on the contract for the supply of the first 100 machines within a fortnight.

In addition to this, the KSRTC was planning to go in for global positioning system (GPS) in a couple of months, which would reveal the location of buses at any given point of time. Each bus would be fitted with a device similar to a "black box" found in aircraft. This would contain all information about the bus, its trips, number of passengers travelling in it, and the revenue collected, Mr. Madhu said. The ticketing machine would have an interface with the "black box" through infrared rays.

Mr. Seshadri said the conductors would have to frequently point the ticketing machine towards the "black box" to update the information.

How will this be useful for the KSRTC? "We will be able to download the information contained in the black box-like device at our control room through the GPS. If we have a doubt about the revenue collected, we can have our inspectors stop the bus and check-up." Though the machines could ensure that the conductors did not reissue tickets, they were not a guarantee against pilferage through ticket-less travelling with or without the connivance of the conductors, he said.

Data generated by the machines would provide the basis for many future decisions of the KSRTC, Mr. Seshadri said.

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