The Hanoi Times - HCM City will experimentally use smart cards o­n two bus routes from February 2010, announced the Department of Transportation.

The electronic tickets will be available o­n the bus routes No. 1 (Sai Gon – Binh Tay) and No. 27 (Ben Thanh – Au Co – Western Coach Station) as of February 1 and March 1, respectively.

Smart cards will replace daily and monthly paper tickets. However, it is passengers’ choice as whether they use smart cards or paper tickets.

Le Hai Phong, deputy director of the Public Transportation Centre, said there will be two types of smart cards for each month and o­ne for the whole year.

The yearly cards can be charged with a minimum of 69,000 dong for 30 trips (equivalent to 2300 dong per trip). The monthly cards are for students, with a charge of a minimum of 63,000 dong for 60 trips (equivalent to 1050 dong/trip). Passengers who are not students have to pay 90,000 dong for a monthly card with 60 trips.

“We will begin receiving passenger registration for use of smart cards o­n January 26 at the Saigon bus control station and the Cho Lon bus station,” Phong said.

The card will include personal information and portraits of passengers. The cost for a card is 30,000 dong and the process takes o­nly five minutes.

“We have prepared for this project for three years and now we can implement it. The Department of Transportation asked the People’s Committee to issue free Smart Cards but the proposal was rejected,” said an official from the HCM City Department of Transportation, Le Trung Tinh.

Hanoi started using smart cards in late December 2009 and it has issued 5,000 cards. HCM City plans to issue 7000 cards.