The Fiji Bus Operators Association will allow school children to board buses irrespective of whether they have received their school e-transport cards or not.

This is while Vodafone Fiji and the Ministry of Education continue the distribution of e-transport cards in the next few days.

While launching the e-card for bus services yesterday, Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum says those students who have not received their cards will get one today.

“We have about 400 students who have not actually received their cards and they will all receive it soon. There’s close to eighty thousand students who get subsidies bus fares and of course we have approximately two hundred and twenty thousand students in Fiji many who actually catch buses themselves. Some use subsidies and other don’t. But the fact of the matter is they still catch the bus and through this system we have better accountability, we will be able to know many students catch the which bus on which route at what time because this e-ticketing gives us that level of intelligence and data.”

Sayed Khaiyum has also highlighted that bus operators need to remind drivers to allow Fijians into buses for free if their e-ticking machines are not working.

Vodafone says more than six hundred thousand people have already registered for e-ticketing.