Commuters boarding the Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) buses in Navi Mumbai can soon swipe their debit or credit card to purchase bus tickets.
Moreover, the mobility cards that can, until now, be swiped only in 25% buses that have the ticketing machines, will now be extended to 100% NMMT buses. The initiatives are part of upgrading the Integrated Intelligent Transport Management System (IITMS) to provide effective services to the commuters.
Abhijit Bangar, NMMC commissioner, who conducted a review meeting with NMMT general manager, Yogesh Kaduskar, has given directives for improvement in the system to provide additional services to the passengers.
At present, NMMT has 250 machines for use of national common mobility cards. Commuters buy tickets from the conductor despite having the card.
Bangar said, “NMMT has been implementing IITMS since 2017, but an upgrade in the system is needed to make it more user-friendly. We are now working on increasing the number of machines used to swipe the cards and install them in all the civic buses. Another priority is to implement a system to allow passengers with any bank debit or credit card to be able to purchase tickets while travelling by NMMT buses.”
He added that the department is also studying the daily NMMT depot-wise report with details of bus frequency, revenue and ridership to conduct a comparative analysis.
“This analysis will be used to ensure quality service and ensure that passenger facility benchmarks are adhered to. I have asked for submission of a report on monthly and annual load factors in each NMMT depot. Load factor is very significant as it helps in date-wise, route-wise and frequency-wise analysis. The process to calculate this load will be automated and integrated in the IITMS software,” Bangar said.
He claimed that a better user-friendly service will help increase the revenue for the transport body.