RANGOON — A local company teamed up with a Singapore-based land transportation management company to implement an electronic ticketing service for Rangoon’s public transportation system, according to the companies’ representatives.
The local company, Integrated Smart Solutions Co. Ltd (ISS), and MSI Global Pte Ltd—a subsidiary of the Land Transport Authority of Singapore, announced the partnership at their formal signing ceremony held on Sunday, where they introduced “anypay”—a new e-ticketing system for buses in Burma’s most populated city.
Anypay will provide a prepaid card system and a mobile app with a QR code for the city’s commuters to ride buses and trains, Kyaw Zeyah, ISS chief executive officer, told reporters at the signing ceremony.
He said that passengers will not need to carry cash and will no longer need to communicate with conductors to make payments. The company’s anypay system will serve as an e-purse for passengers, he added.
“We would like to fill a gap in the public transportation system,” he said. “With this system, we are ready to provide a similar service for any BRT bus lines—either current or future.”
Machines for anypay prepaid cards are currently installed on buses operated by the Yangon Bus Public Co., Ltd (YBPC)—the city’s first bus rapid transit (BRT) system. Currently, 65 buses traverse the BRT’s two routes.
Chairman Maung Aung of the YBPC said it is a pioneering public bus company, which is popular among commuters but still faces many difficulties. In trying to improve the commercial capital’s main public transportation system, electronic ticketing will play an important role for both companies and commuters, he said.
“Anypay is a ticketing system that is safe, organized and modernized, and can provide a very good experience for people who use public transportation,” Maung Aung said.
Managing director Sim Wee Meng of MSI Global said the partnership is a step toward supporting ISS’s mission to change Burma’s public transportation system from cash to cashless and implement an automatic fare collection system.
The company will begin its trial system in October and is expected to officially launch the service by January.
