Soon, 10% off on bus rides paid with Metro cards

NEW DELHI: Passengers using Metro smart cards to pay for bus journeys in the capital will soon get a 10% discount on their rides, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said on Thursday.

The common mobility card service, under which one can use a Metro card to pay for rides in Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and cluster buses, was introduced on August 24 this year.

While Metro commuters have always received a 10% discount on their train travels, the same was not the case for bus passengers. The issue of lack of any incentive for using a Metro card in buses was raised by commuters when HT had conducted a reality check on the opening day of the e-payment service.

On an average, 30 lakh passengers use the 5,561 public buses run by the state government. Of the total buses, 3882 are run by the DTC and 1679 are cluster buses.

“This decision was taken in the Cabinet today and will be notified soon after which it will be implemented. It is necessary in view of rising air pollution to encourage more and more people to use buses. The use of metro card to pay for bus rides electronically will save expenditure on printing of tickets of different denominations, stocking the tickets at central places and thereafter, distributions to various depots, again stocking of these tickets at depot level, issuing tickets daily to the conductors and getting back the unsold tickets after duty hours,” said deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia.

Currently, bus fares in Delhi for non-ac buses are ₹5, ₹10 and ₹15. There is a fixed fare of five rupees for travel in non-ac buses for up to five kms. Fare slab for travel in AC buses is between ₹10 and ₹25.

“Saving of human resources and space at depot level are other benefits. The conductors of the buses will not be required to handle the different denominations block of tickets and cash. In such scenario, the conductors may concentrate more on checking ticketless travelling,” a government-issued statement read.

The cost of the discount offered to passenger for each bus travel will be borne by the Delhi government directly, a government official maintained.