An advertisement on smart cards in a bus in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, June 6: Smart rides in city buses are all set to begin from tomorrow. With smart cards in their wallets, passengers can travel cashless without having to bother about small change.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik will roll out the service.

To avail of the smart card service, all a passenger needs to do is to pay Rs 60 and buy his passport to cashless journey in the city buses. 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 re-charge amount has to be used within 30 days.

Chief operating officer of Dream Team Sahara (DTS) Sudhanshu Jena said: “The smart card will be valid in all 129 city buses, including the four air-conditioned ones, operating on 17 routes connecting Cuttack and Puri.’’

People can collect smart cards either from a conductor on the bus or from the Master Canteen depot.

“One has to fill up a form and give it to the conductor to get the smart card within 24 hours,” Jena said.

The launching of smart cards was put on hold twice in the past because of the model code of conduct for the general election.

Using the radio frequency technology, the smart cards are aimed at providing cashless travel to the commuters. The move is expected to put and end to frequent brawls in buses over small change. Now the conductor on duty will swipe the card on the customised machine and issue the ticket.

“I am a diabetic. While travelling in the city buses on many occasions conductors hand me toffees in lieu of change. The toffees are of no use to me. With the smart card, this trouble will end,” said Pitambar Parida, a regular commuter.

The DTS is targeting to sell 5,000 smart cards in the first phase, while a total of 25,000 cards will be sold in the next few months.