CUMTA plans to hire transaction advisor for study of common mobility card for Chennai

Chennai, India (Urban Transport News): The Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) is seeking to appoint a transaction advisor to study the implementation of mobility card taking a cue from London and Singapore models.

“The advisor will study the present system and advise on the future system design. He will help us in formulating the tender and implementation too,” said Jeyakumar, Special Officer of CUMTA.

“We are not touching the onboard ticketing which is prevalent now. MTC and Chennai Metro will continue to have separate ticketing. Even railways will continue to issue tickets through the UTS app,” he said.

“Our ticketing is journey planner-cum-integrated  offboard ticketing. As an app-based ticketing system, it won’t interfere with the standalone ticketing model,” added Jeyakumar.

Responding to a query on whether electronic ticketing machines available with bus conductors could scan the common mobility card, Jeyakumar said that the ETMs will have a QR code, which will factor the common mobility card. “It will take another 15 months to implement it once the tender is finalised,” he said.

The CUMTA Act was passed in 2010 during the regime of then Chief Minister M Karunanidhi for proper coordination and streamlining of the activities among agencies involved in planning, operating and managing transportation systems. It was notified only in January 2019 and later amended in September 2020 by appointing the Chief Minister as Chairman.

CUMTA, which is now functioning from the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority office will shift to the Chennai Metro office in Nandanam soon.