APSRTC to invest Rs 3.75 crore in online ticket initiative

The corporation is investing about Rs 3.75 crore for its online passenger reservation system (OPRS), said APSRTC executive director (engineering and IT) U Sudhakara Rao.

This initiative, apart from reducing the rush at bus stations, would aid the corporation in increasing its ticketing business by about Rs 100 crore a year from the present Rs 220 crore a year.

The facility would also ensure a substantial saving in stationery and manpower costs. However, the conventional ticketing system will continue to be in operation considering that all the APSRTC passengers are not computer-savvy to generate a ticket for themselves.

At present, the APSRTC has advanced current ticket booking system (ACTBS), a computerised ticket issuing centre. Though present at multiple locations in the state and outside, these are standalone centres and require the passengers to physically come for accessing the tickets.

The corporation had recently issued a tender to a Bharat Electrical Limited (BEL) consortium for making the ACTBS web-enabled. Bangalore-based Radiant Technologies is now integrating the ACTBS into a web-based framework to allow the passengers to transact online.

There are 49 ACTBS and a majority of them are already integrated. Bus stations including the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station at Hyderabad, Pandit Nehru Bus Station at Vijayawada and a bus terminal at Chennai among others would be integrated shortly.

"We expect the OPRS to be ready by August," Rao said, adding the customers can reserve tickets, advance or postpone their journey schedules and cancel tickets online.

HDFC will be the gateway for the online transactions through credit and debit cards.