The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) has launched ‘Chalo travel cards’ and ‘Chalo free mobile App’ for passengers in Vijayawada city. The App and the mobile ticket facility have been launched on a pilot basis in about 450 city buses.
APSRTC Vice-Chairman and Managing Director (VC&MD) Madireddy Pratap and Mumbai-based Zophop Technologies Private Limited Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Vinayak Bhavnani launched the App here on Wednesday.
“The free mobile App launched on the brand name ‘Chalo’ will benefit about 2.5 lakh passengers and enable the commuters to track the live GPS position of their bus, provides one-day bus pass on mobile phone, travel safely with emergency SOS and plan their trip,” Mr. Pratap said.
Agreement
Mr. Vinayak said the start-up company entered into a tie-up with the APSRTC for launching ‘Chalo travel card’, a pre-paid smart card to buy tickets. Cards can be procured from the conductors and recharged in any city bus. Smart cards are offered free with a first recharge of ₹100 (with equal travel expense), and subsequent recharges can be done from ₹10 to ₹3,000. Cards can also be used for ‘Travel as you like’ bus pass for a day, the CTO said.
“Chalo travel cards are currently issued in over 23 cities and tracks about 10,000 buses. The technology is successfully introduced in Indore, Bhopal, Assam, Kolkata, Jabalpur, Kochi, Patna, and other cities and the response is good,” Mr. Vinayak said.
Tehe VC&MD said the aim of the MoU with Zophop Technologies was to encourage the young talented minds, and the agreement between RTC and the firm would be for 12 months.
Zophop Chief Marketing Officer Dhruv, APSRTC Executive Director (ED-operations) K.S. Brahmananda Reddy, ED (administration) A. Koteswara Rao, ED(engineering) P. Krishna Mohan, financial advisor M.V. Raghava Reddy, chief engineer (IT) V. Sudhakar, deputy chief mechanical engineer Srinivas and other officers participated in the programme.
