Pvt. Bus passengers get ‘smart card’ upgrade

5 June 2013 10:44 am

The country’s first pre-paid card system for private buses would be introduced from Thursday, the Lanka Private Bus Owners Association said today

The prepaid card system would begin as a pilot project for a month starting today in all Mattegoda and Maharagama buses plying from the High Level Road in Colombo.

“The prepaid card could be purchased with a refundable deposit of Rs.200 to which any amount of money could be loaded at any People Bank branch, Dialog branch or telecommunication in Colombo. The amount loaded into the card would be confirmed through a confirmation message sent to the mobile phone similar to a mobile phone reload,” association President Gemunu Wijeyratne said.

Accordingly when boarding a bus the card should be handed over to the bus conductor who would in turn punch the card in a machine and issue a receipt. The daily revenue earned by the bus operators punched in the machine would be automatically generated in a system by the bank which would issue a debit card to bus operators to withdraw their earnings.( Olindhi Jayasundera)