Daily Times

LAHORE: The Lahore Transport Company (LTC) in collaboration with TPL Rupiya has introduced the LTC Musafir Card system in the provincial metropolis on Saturday.

This NFC based card is a cashless fare payment solution in continuation of e-ticketing system in second phase.

The first phase of the e-ticketing system was implemented in 2015 for all urban and sub urban bus routes operated by LTC.

LTC Chairperson Mehr Ishtiaq Ahmed hailed the LTC Musafir Card during a meeting in the presence of LTC board members saying it will provide economical and comfortable transport facilities to the passengers.

In this connection, the LTC is heading towards the path of e-governance under public private partnership model for providing efficient public service delivery to the general public.

On this occasion, LTC Board Members including vice chairman Ramzan Siddique Bhatti, Dr Asad Ashraf, Aleem Javed Chaudhry, LTC Chief Executive Officer Maryam Khawar, TPL CEO Ali Jamil, TPL Rupaiya Deputy CEO Danish Ahmed and United Bank Limited Head of Digital Payment Adnan Javed, COO Zafar Qureshi, Acting CTO Abdul Qayyum, DGM Enforcement Shafique Ahmed, Manager IT Yasir Bukhari, DM Communication Nasir Hussain and other officials were also present.

According to details, this card will allow LTC passengers to make fare payments via their UBL Omni mobile wallet accounts. For now, passengers will be allowed to make fare payments using cash, as well as the NFC Card. However, once the commuters are well versed and comfortable with using the new system, the third and final phase will commence, which eliminates cash transactions and replaces it with a Tap & Pay system.

Significantly, one card can be used for manifold passengers in buying tickets on LTC buses. As the card is backed by a mobile wallet, the card holder can use his account for the payment of utility bills, buying air time, money transfer, zakat payments and donations, online shopping and other payments.

The e-ticketing system was introduced by LTC in order to get precise statistics of commuters, transparent disbursement of subsidy to the private transport operators and to prevent it from revenue pilferages. Contactless cards are proven to streamline journeys around the world and similarly will offer people a more secure alternative to cash.

Ali Jamil said, “The project is a milestone achievement in terms of transforming the transport system of Pakistan. It is Pakistan’s first ever mass transit digital payment solution deployed to serve more than 100,000 passengers across multiple LTC bus operators daily. Our focus has always been to effectively implement technology to help solve ground problems and create successful solutions. With Mass Transit, we have created a solid digital Fintech ecosystem and we will continue to build on it over the next few years.”

Published in Daily Times, May 13^th 2018.