RTC Plans Single-Ticket E-Rickshaws To End Hyderabad's Travel Hassles

Three months after Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy ordered officials to provide last-mile connectivity for boosting public transport ridership in Hyderabad, the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC) has proposed to introduce electric autorickshaws that will link interior areas.

According to sources, officials are in talks with electric vehicle manufacturers and aggregators to firm up the nitty-gritty of the service. The pilot project will be launched in Hyderabad and will be expanded to other cities later.

Officials said the new plan will enable service-agnostic, point-to-point ticketing, allowing commuters to complete multi-leg journeys on a single ticket.

Under the system, a passenger can take an autorickshaw from an interior area to a bus stand, travel by bus to a point near the destination, and then use another autorickshaw to reach the final location.

“Electric autos under the "first-mile to last-mile connectivity" initiative aim to provide greater convenience to bus passengers. Services will launch initially in Greater Hyderabad, followed by other major cities. Passengers will be able to book both their bus ticket and the connecting electric auto trip in a single transaction. The service bridges the gap from home to the bus stop, and from the drop-off bus stop to the final destination,” an RTC official said.

The new RTC service will follow the hub-and-spoke model — used in several countries — to address this issue by connecting bus stands with interior areas.

Lack of last-mile connectivity has always been blamed for the lower-than-expected patronage seen for public transport in Hyderabad, as the majority of people in the city stay at locations farther from the key points of buses, metro or MMTS. The lack of efficient public transport options forces people in Hyderabad to prefer private vehicles, crowding roads and causing traffic jams.

An efficient public transport system is crucial for the development of a world-class city as it allows commuters to save time. It will also lead to the expansion of the city, decongesting the core metropolis. However, none of Indian

The state government also plans to introduce common ticketing for buses and metro rail through a common mobility card system called Telangana Mobility as a Service (T-Maas). Hyderabad Metro has already shifted to the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC), which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 7, 2019, for prepaid ticketing