Bhubaneswar, June 25: City bus operators have introduced smart cards for passengers, but less than 1,000 cards have been sold since the scheme was launched 20 days ago.

The private operators of the service said that summer vacation had proved to be a dampener. Besides, lack of awareness about the project had also worked against it.

The smart card system was aimed for cashless travel in city buses and also to curb incidents of altercation between passengers and the staff over small change.

“Regular passengers were our main target. They constitute 80 per cent of the commuters. We don’t want them to face problems,” said an official of the Dream Team Shahara (DTS), the private operator of the service.

Chief operating officer of DTS Sudhansu Jena said that in the last 20 days around 700 cards had been sold and that was below par. “We found that students, particularly college-goers, are our prime customers. Due to summer vacations, they are off the city now. Once the colleges reopen, these students will resume travel in these buses and will seek these cards. The cards which will be of immense help to them,” said Jena.

He said that a passenger has to pay only Rs 60 for this card and recharge it regularly to avail the cashless travel service. But those paying Rs 300 will be exempted from paying the initial cost of Rs 60 for the card that will be issued by the Bhubaneswar-Puri Transport Services Limited (BPTSL), which runs the service. The smart card can be recharged with a minimum payment of Rs 100, the maximum amount being Rs 999. However, the recharged amount has to be used within 30 days, else it will be forfeited.

The smart card can be collected from the officials at the DTS office at Master Canteen Square, from conductors on the bus, shopping malls, movie halls, department stores and major shops in the city.

“I have been using the card for the last few days and it has been of great help. One just has to hand the card to the conductor, who will swipe it with the hand-held machine and deduct the amount from it. This eliminates heated exchanges with conductors over small change,” said Ratikant Sahu, a daily passenger.

A city bus employee said that the attitude of people had not changed yet. They were ready to quarrel over a one-rupee coin everyday, but will not have the facility.

Majority of the cardholders are youths and students, a conductor said.