An ambitious plan to introduce a prepaid card system for private buses in Sri Lanka has run into union troubles, possibly derailing the rollout.
The Private Bus Owners Association of Sri Lanka, an association of all bus company owners, announced last month it would participate in the prepaid card system for fare payments on its buses beginning Sept. 24.
But the All Island Private Bus Company Federation, a rival association with members common with the Private Bus Owners Association, is now challenging the project, a spokesperson for the association tells PaymentsSource.
“The competing association is claiming that our project is illegal and does not have permission from the government authorities to carry on with this project,” he says. “Their contention is that their needs to be a proper route timetable, and other infrastructure issues need to be sorted out first.”
The rival union also claims the new prepaid system would burden bus owners with extra costs they would not be able to recover quickly, he adds.
However, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka has approved the project as required under the country’s regulations, the spokesperson says.
The Private Bus Owners Association also contends the opposition is unfounded because bus owners have accepted the extra costs associated with installing the new system, and most infrastructure issues have been sorted out, the spokesperson says
But a smooth rollout of the system would be a problem without the rival union supporting it, he concedes.
PaymentsSource was unable to get an independent confirmation of the opposition, though the All Island Private Bus Company Federation has voiced its opposition through many local media reports.
When operational, placing the chip-embedded prepaid card on a scanner would alert vending machines deployed at every station to issue tickets based on the arrival and departure stations the rider chooses using the machines. The system was provided by eLanka Pvt. Ltd., a local technology provider.
The Private Bus Owners Association successfully tested the closed-loop card on two major bus routes in Sri Lanka, the spokesperson says.
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