Bus bookings take new Awatar

Bus bookings take new Awatar
The Times of India

Bangalore: Bus travel is going hitech in Karnataka, the aeroplane and train way: If you want to travel from any corner of the state to another, you can make advance reservations via telephone and internet 24X7 and travel in comfort.

Chief minister H D Kumaraswamy will launch the advance booking system — Awatar (anywhere-anytime advance reservation) — on April 29. Unveiling details of the project, transport minister N Cheluvarayaswamy said: “We are already adopting IT at all levels and deploying electronic ticketing machines on our routes. But the new system will enable people from different parts of the state to make advance reservations on any of the 12,000 bus schedules operating every day and also connecting major towns of neighbouring states.’’

Against a reservation fee of Rs 5, the new system will enable people to journey with assured seats. Besides telephone and internet, more reservation counters will also be opened — 500 instead of the present 130 — in small towns to facilitate the public to reserve seats from anywhere to anywhere in the state and to neighbouring ones.

A BEL-led consortium including Radiant Info System, IBM and CRIS, has worked out the computerised central software for the reservation system at a cost of Rs 4.25 crore. To a query that one of the companies, Radiant Info System, had delayed issue of access cards to BMTC, Cheluvarayaswamy said he would look into it.

The system interface enables all kinds of transactions including fresh tickets, lost tickets, group ticketing, cancellation, partial cancellations, etc.. For internet transactions, payment will be only through credit or debit cards, while cash will be accepted at the KSRTC and its authorised counters, the minister said.