Telangana Govt Enhances Free Bus Travel for Women with Smart Cards

The Government of Telangana is taking steps to make free bus travel in the name of Mahalakshmi more convenient. Women are already travelling for free by showing their Aadhaar card. RTC is coming up with another idea to make it easier. The Government decided to distribute smart cards to women. It is reported that these smart cards will be available soon. Smart cards related to the Mahalakshmi scheme will also be issued like the bus pass which is being given till now. Efforts are underway to make these even smarter. RTC has announced that henceforth all bus passes will also be made smart.

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Officials will introduce a digital payment system to overcome retail problems, along with issuing smart cards to free travel beneficiaries. This digital payment system is already being successfully implemented in some buses at the Bandlaguda depot in Hyderabad. RTC officials are looking to implement this across the state. They have introduced ITEMS (Intelligent Ticket Issue Mission) for digital payment. It has been implemented for three months in buses travelling to distant areas as well as in Bandlaguda. It is expected that if the trial is successful, no other problems arise and retail issues are resolved, then it will be introduced throughout Telangana. Henceforth, even if a passenger does not have cash, they can buy a ticket on the bus through UPI apps like debit, credit card, PhonePe, and Google Pay.