Bengaluru: For BMTC commuters, availability of loose change is a challenge and quite often they end up having heated arguments with conductors.
In order to make their travel experience less stressful the BMTC is working on tweaking its ticketing machines to make them accept digital wallets.
The Corporation is working on a plan to replace its 10,000 plus electronic ticketing machines with an Android-based ticketing system that will allow commuters to buy tickets through digital wallets. In the initial stage the system is being tried out in 200 buses routes.
"We are now ready with 200 machines which our staff are using. Based on the result and feedback we are planning to scale it up for all BMTC buses. This will be provide a permanent solution for the change problem in city buses. We are sure that people will utilise this facility because the usage of digital wallets is on the rise,” a BMTC senior official told Deccan Chronicle.
Under the Android-based system, BMTC will accept payments using QR code (Quick Response Code) from passengers who have digital wallets in their smartphones.
The electronic ticketing machines currently in use were provided by Trimax IT Infrastructure Services in 2014 when the BMTC adopted technology under the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) project. However, the BMTC now believes these machines are outdated as they neither read QR codes nor validate passes.
"It is a very good decision. More and more people are making use of digital wallets such as Paytm, Mobikwik and others, so BMTC should make the facility available in all the buses" said Santosh Kumar, a regular BMTC commuter.
Digital bus pass
Though BMTC recently introduced Namma Pass project, which allows passengers to buy a digital bus pass, the response has been poor due to cumbersome process. Commuters and experts want BMTC to streamline the process and adopt new technology. Currently, BMTC’s daily cash transaction from ticket fare stands at Rs 70 lakh, while digital transaction is a meagre Rs 1,000.
