The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has finally gone ahead and awarded the contract for ticketing to Chalo Mobility, the Mumbai-based startup that handles ticketing operations in multiple cities across India, as reported by Christin Mathew Philip for MoneyControl. The contract is set for a term of five years, valued at ₹40 crore. Chalo will maintain the electronic ticket machines (ETMs) and set-up a comprehensive ticketing system including mobile payments and support for the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC). Chalo will supply around 11,000 ETMs with the number expected to go up to 15,000 in the future.
Currently, Transhelp Technologies’ Tummoc operates the BMTC’s digital ticketing system while Amnex handles he vehicle tracking. Bengaluru currently has NCMC’s issued by RBL Bank for Namma Metro and also Orbit Wallet’s NCMC issued through the Electronics City Industries Association (ELCIA) to employees to promote cashless transactions. Orbit was the winner of the Karnataka government’s STAMP challenge in 2025.
Interestingly, in May 2025, the BMTC had said that it would roll-out support for the NCMC with the existing machines.
Chalo is also the partner for NCMC-led ticketing in Mumbai (BEST), Chhatrapati Shambhaji Nagar (formerly Aurangabad), Jammu, Srinagar and Guwahati.
Interestingly, in 2011, BEST had partnered with Trimax IT for electronic ticketing and in 2016, BMTC partnered with Trimax IT for vehicle tracking.
In a move to recalibrate Delhi’s free bus travel for women, the Government of NCT Delhi (GNCTD) launched the Pink Saheli Card as a replacement for the existing Pink Ticket scheme launched by the erstwhile AAP government. Under the new model, Pink coloured cards would be issued to eligible women – women who live in Delhi, validated with their Aadhaar card – which would function as an NCMC. Regular NCMCs (Blue, and Orange for pass holders) would also be issued to others, while existing Delhi Metro and other NCMCs are expected to work normally.
The Saheli Card was formally launched by President of India Draupadi Murmu and Chief Minister of Delhi Rekha Gupta on 2 March 2026.
A list of outlets where eligible women can apply for the Saheli Card is available on the DTC website. Given that the list includes multiple pass counters at various depots of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), it can be assumed that non-Saheli cards would be available there too. It would also be wise to assume that the cards would work on Cluster Buses operated by the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS).
However, the DTC has not given a final date on the rollout for NCMCs or notified whether NCMCs are currently accepted on buses. The DTC, in a statement has said that “After a reasonable period, once it is assessed that most eligible women have received the Pink Saheli Smart Cards, the Delhi government will gradually replace the existing Pink Paper Ticket system with the Smart Card-based system to ensure greater transparency, efficiency, and convenience in public transport.”
Further, DTC and DIMTS are not yet listed on the Live Projects section on the website of the National Payments Corporation of India.
Featured Image: Delhi CM Rekha Gupta holds the Saheli NCMC
Celebrations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) peaked on 8 October 2025, as the Mumbai Metro’s Aqua line’s last leg – Aarey JVLR to Cuffe Parade was made operational, along with the inauguration of the Navi Mumbai International Airport. But what accompanied these events was the launch of the Mumbai One App. The National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) by the same name was launched with the inauguration of the Metro Yellow and Red lines, while the mobile application was in development for a long time. The wait has finally come to an end as the application is rolled out for public use with periodic updates.
Features
The Mumbai One app allows a passenger to travel across Mumbai City and its extended suburbs with a single payment system. This currently includes the Metro, Monorail, bus ticketing in BEST, NMMT, TMT and MBMT as well as the Mumbai Suburban Railway. The sole drawback of NCMC not being able to offer interoperability in other transport undertakings is ruled out as MMRDA has managed to bring buses, trains and metro ticketing under the ONDC umbrella. The app does not offer live tracking as of now, but the ticketing part is working well.
An interactive map – similar to the one seen at automatic ticket vending machines (ATVMs) at the railway stations is present in the app to choose the source and destination. Once finalised, the user can further filter out the mode of transport and choose which ticket to pay for.
A walkthrough video for the Mumbai One app can be seen below:
Metro and Suburban Rail
The Mumbai One app offers a quick ticketing feature for all the operational metro lines in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, as well as the Mumbai Monorail. As Monorail services are suspended, it was not possible to test the app as of now. The Mumbai Metro Aqua line network was updated within 72 hours after the application was made available to the public. Suburban rail ticketing is linked with the UTS (Unreserved Ticketing System) App.
Bus Ticketing
Travel on BEST buses was pretty simple, as the system for authenticating QR Tickets is already built into the Ticketing machines. Some conductors do confuse the ticket with a UPI Payment QR Code, but cooperate when made aware of the app.
Ground testing (not sponsored) took a month to bring the Thane Municipal Transport conductors aboard this system. TMT continued with ‘cash payment only’ until the complete rollout of the MaziTMT app this February. The system included two ways of verification – enabling the QR Code scanner in the ticketing machine or entering a token number, unique for each conductor. The conductors got so habituated to the token system, it became difficult to convince them to use the QR Code Scanner. In the earlier days, conductors complained of network errors in their machines as an excuse to deny e-ticketing, but that issue was resolved in a month once the higher-ups in TMT took cognisance of the same. The machines were updated within a week, and network connectivity is no more an excuse, and one can rely on the Mumbai One app as a mode of payment on board a TMT bus. Where a BEST conductor needs to feed stages and number of passengers before authenticating a mobile ticket, TMT went for a simpler system to just scan the M-Ticket QR and all the details easily flash in front of the conductor.
For NMMT and MBMT, the system is simple and sorted. The sole requirement is confirmation of the route from the bus conductor so as not to be confused with the short trips. Conductors happily guide the same, even in crowded situations. Ticket verification is done by simply opening the QR scanner on the ticketing machine. Both NMMT and MBMT have the same user interface for the ticketing system, which eliminates confusion. Both have a tie-up with PhonePe for digital payments and do not require entering any ticket details to verify mobile tickets purchased through the Mumbai One app.
Areas for Improvement
Ticketing in buses is a tedious part when dealing with digital payments, as the process takes an additional 30 seconds (every second counts), which creates a blocker for the conductor and inconvenience to the passengers. The Chalo app solved this with their in-app wallet and the Railways solved this issue with their R-Wallet linked to the UTS account. For some reason, one cannot book a return ticket for local trains through this app. There is a good scope to introduce an in-app wallet in Mumbai One, as Payments through the UPI Lite Wallet (a feature aimed at small payments without using UPI PIN) also take time to process by the payment gateway.
Conclusion
The Mumbai One application is solving the long-awaited problem of a common app to fulfil the travel needs in Mumbai & its extended suburbs. In future, we can expect all the errors sorted out at least in terms of bus ticketing. This article cannot be stretched more as the scenario is crystal clear, and users can happily rely on one app for travel needs in BEST, TMT, NMMT and MBMT. The next step towards a better commuting experience will be the integration of bus tracking with Google Maps. The railways are already on board, and so is BEST undertaking.
In an interesting development, Orbit Wallet (Sakaera Technologies) won part of a $100,000 (₹86 lakh) as part of the Station Access and Mobility Programme (STAMP) Challenge : Nudging Commuter Behaviour organised by the Toyota Mobility Foundation, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), WRI Foundation, and Electronics City Industrial Association (ELCIA).
As per a LinkedIn post by Orbit’s CEO Harshvardhan Zaveri, the pilot programme is to start in August 2025 with tie-ups with companies in Electronics City to issue Orbit Wallet’s Prepaid Card to promote patronage of the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC). The other three winners of the STAMP Challenge, according to a Deccan Heraldarticle are CommuteVerse, Nippon Koei Business Ventures and Tummoc (Transhelp Technologies). Under STAMP 2025, the winners will use demonstrate the integration of behavioural patterns with public transport.
The Orbit Wallet, an NCMC-enabled RuPay Prepaid Card
While the timing and location of Orbit’s announcement coincides with the opening of Namma Metro’s Yellow Line that will connect Electronics City with the rest of Bengaluru, we hope that it will also translate towards the BMTC accepting the NCMC as a payment method. BMTC had in May 2025 announced that it was looking at upgrading its ticketing systems to accept the NCMC. A year prior to that, it was reported by Christin Mathew Philip of MoneyControl that BMTC with a daily ridership of 38 lakh was not keen on accepting the Namma Metro NCMC because BMRCL had a ridership of 7-8 lakh, an argument that defies logic and defeats the purpose of the NCMC itself.
Let’s hope that BMTC will take the smart step and roll-out the red carpet for the NCMC soon.
Notes: Nippon Koei is a Japanese consultancy firm that works in the transport sector. It has worked with the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) in the past. Tummoc is the platform that allows commuters to track BMTC buses and also purchase daily passes. In Delhi, commuters can buy bus tickets as well with Tummoc.
I couldn’t find much about CommuteVerse but this LinkedIn post by Dr Aekta Aggarwal, Associate Professor at IIM Indore sheds some light on it. She describes it as a behaviourly intelligent commuting platform. I will post more once I learn more about it.
Featured Image:Winners of the STAMP Mobility Challenge (Picture via Toyota Mobility Foundation)
Around a decade ago, I encountered a severe crisis in my life. I had too much time on my hands. I had taken a backseat from actively editing the English Wikipedia, and a certain other setback in my life left me with a lot of time on my hands and I was floundering as to what to do with my time. I had just returned from an internship at a magazine (which was then using WordPress for their website) and decided I wanted to do something real with WordPress this time. I had a blog on Google’s Blogger for a decade – interestingly started in July – and well, 13-year old me was a stark contrast to 23-year old me, which is to say that 33-year old me is another story, but that’s for another day. The one thing that has stuck without any change all this while however, is my love for public transport, especially buses. In fact, the earliest news story that I can remember is of an MTC (then Pallavan) bus falling off the Ekkatuthangal bridge into the Adayar river when we lived in Chennai.
Eventually, I realised that it was high time I stopped experimenting with WordPress on XAMPP and took a split-second decision, one which I was scared that I’d regret someday. I wanted full control over my blog, and I decided to buy a domain and hosting. And thus, BESTpedia was born.
But why BESTpedia? Well it had to do with buses, and it had to do with BEST, and the lingering hangover of Wikipedia was still there. This is the ‘official version’. The real reason will remain a secret for long time.
I chose to pick a written blog over a video or any other medium, because I loved to write. I did want to start a podcast, I was good with audio editing, I even got myself a Blue Snowball iCE microphone (thanks Arun!), but then podcasts got ruined by people showing their faces on YouTube. Oh and in case you guys did miss it, I did end up being on a podcast, hosted by my namesake in 2023. You can watch it (I know, I know) here. That being said, I have been told on many an occasion that I have a face for radio, which, well, sort of inspired me to move away from video. While most people would argue that a video-based platform would be more work; trust me on this, I have been called lazy for writing, I still think writing is the hardest form of communication, no matter which language it is. On a side note; despite what I said, I have enjoyed video editing off-late, so, yes, WE ARE ON YOUTUBE. Please subscribe to our channel here; we will be posting videos soon.
Coming back to the blog, it started out as something and has since evolved into something else. The initial struggle was quite significant, but with time, it has evolved into something else. Today, it isn’t just my blog, but has evolved into a community of sorts, thanks to several people who have helped me out with things from sourcing imagery to ideas on what to write, to actually contributing full articles, and of course, reading them. Nobody took a blog about buses seriously, but then I eventually ended up in journalism, and that made people notice, although urban planners and folks actually working in the transport sector despise me and my blog, because I write from a commuters’ perspective.
In the ten years since I this blog started, public transport has changed, the perception about it has also changed. At the same time, we’ve all grown up with our views also shifting significantly over time. I want this blog to be a reflection of that change, the evolution, although transport in principle, does remain the same.
As I sign off, I want to thank all those who have supported me over the last decade and more, especially my parents, whose reaction I dreaded when I first started BESTpedia, my friends, my mentors, and well-wishers.
I’d like to dedicate this post in memoriam to my late father.
Featured Image: BESTpedia turns ten. Image generated using Adobe Firefly with text added manually because GenAI is terrible at adding text to images.
In early 2024, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) made a slight tweak to some of their buses. The front LED display would now display the route number on the right hand side instead of the left. This model was last seen in pre-LED buses, especially in Maharashtra such as with BEST and NNMT on the rolling cloth displays. Prior to the advent of LED displays, the route display on BMTC buses was on a metal plate with the number in the centre, the origin on the left hand side and the destination on the right hand side.
The advent of LED displays brought in a standard display layout, not just across buses of the BMTC, but across the globe. World-wide, LED displays on buses generally show the route number on the left-hand side and destination or route to the right-hand side. The reason for this is that most languages are read from left to right and people tend to look at the number first since the number is an easier identifier than the destination. Interestingly, in countries that follow the right-left scripts such as Israel (Hebrew), Iran (Persian), UAE (Arabic) and Pakistan (Urdu), the order is the same. The route number is on the left hand side.
In a 2024 article titled LED Riding Hoods, Bangalore Mirror reported that this was done to make it easier to spot buses, especially when there multiple buses at a bus stop. Commuters were apparently welcoming of the move immediately as well. Several commuters suggested going to the original pre-LED format of having the origin and destination on either side with the number in the centre, which makes limited sense.
BMTC’s new inverted LED display format (Srikanth Ramakrishnan/BESTpedia)
However, this layout is rather confusing. For starters, the human brain is wired to read things in a certain order. In the case of Bangalore, where bus stops sometimes have longer names, and don’t entirely fit on to the display and are scrolling, this is a bigger issue. We view the number first and then the destination. When the text gets truncated at the end of the display, we wait for the text to scroll. Now when the number is located at the end, it confuses the brain. Further, the side and rear displays on the bus feature the conventional format of the number first and then the route. With BMTC adopting newer and more complicated bus numbers, this also eats away at the space, for example: in this reel, one can see route numbers such as HSRFDR1 and HSRFDR1A. Now, while this eats up more than half the space on the right hand side a passenger might mistake it to be part of the route itself.
A second problem is the absolute lack of uniformity. This inverted layout is only there on select buses from BMTC’s regular Bengaluru Sarige fleet (white buses, the green Suvarna fleet and the blue BS6 fleet). The Volvo fleet, the Corona fleet and the entire wet-leased electric fleet (Switch non-AC, Switch AC and Tata Marcopolo) feature the conventional display layout. This makes it very confusing for commuters while waiting for a bus stop.
(Top) A BMTC Volvo bus using the standard LED display format (Bottom) A BMTC Switch bus using the standard LED display format
Now, going back to historical layouts from the pre-LED era; I had mentioned that BEST buses in Mumbai did feature the bus number on the right hand side. However, the reason this worked was because of a physical separation of the two entities. The rolling cloth display was essentially two units – one for the route and another for the destination.
(Top) A BEST bus using the older rolling cloth display (Image credit: Aavesh601) (Bottom) A BMTC Suvarna bus using the older metal plate display (Image credit: RisingCitizen)
BMTC needs to figure out a way to reduce the confusion. What are your views?
Featured Image: A graphical representative of the two different LED display layouts on a BMTC bus (Srikanth Ramakrishnan/BESTpedia)
On 9 May 2025, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking implemented a fare revision after sticking to lower ticket fares for nearly six years. This directly impacted most feeder routes as one way fares doubled but unlocked the potential to re-introduce long routes as the fare slabs were now available for up to 50kms. While the Undertaking is working on introducing a 3km fare slab for feeders routes, a new trunk route was introduced on 1 June 2025. The route A-490 operates from Dadlani Park in Thane to Mantralaya, via the Eastern Freeway.
Currently limited to just two trips in each direction from Monday to Saturday, A-490 aims to cater to the peak hour rush. While the bus is struggling to gain enough ridership, I took a ride from Mantralaya to understand why.
History
The Eastern Freeway is a toll-free, access-controlled road, completed in three stages – Orange Gate to Wadala, Anik to Panjarpol and Panjarpol to Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link Road. The road up to Panjarpol Circle was inaugurated in 2013 and the section up to Mankhurd Link Road was opened in April 2014. The extension of this Freeway up to Mulund is still under construction.
BEST operated two Express routes along the Eastern Freeway – C-8Exp from Shivaji Nagar to Mantralaya and C-50Exp from Vashi to World Trade Center. Once the entire stretch was opened, BEST started A-8Express using their JCBL Cerita fleet from Mulund to the World Trade Center. The route was shut down after BEST discontinued all air-conditioned services in 2017. C-50 and C-8 eventually merged into a new route A-21 from Anushakti Nagar to Electric House during the route rationalisation of 1 September 2021. On 1 July 2022, the route was converted to an AC route and renumbered to A-26 which is presently in service. However, A-26 uses the Eastern Freeway between Jijamata Nagar (Mahul) and P D’Mello Road. A-490 on the other hand uses the entire stretch of Eastern Freeway from P D’Mello Road to Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link Road.
Journey
Left to Right: Bus A-490, booking a ticket via the Chalo App and the view of the Easter Freeway from the front of the bus. (Photo: Gandharva Purohit for BESTpedia)
At 5:30pm in the evening, my bus started from Mantralaya for its 43km-long journey to Balkum – Dadlani Park. Eight passengers including me boarded from the first stop and ten more boarded at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Chowk (Museum), only to alight at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT). The bus had to do a detour via Mint Road citing manoeuvrability issues in taking a left at the GPO Signal. Post Carnac Bunder, there were just ten passengers onboard (including me) for the Freeway Ride. Two more passengers boarded post Indian Oil Nagar on Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link Road.
Ramabai Nagar was the common point where this route runs parallel with A-491 (earlier known as C-42Exp) to Dadlani Park. The bus was fairly vacant with just half of the seats occupied as we pulled outside Ghatkopar Depot for an unscheduled halt. After a 10min halt on the main road, we continued on the congested Eastern Express Highway. Meanwhile, a passenger accidentally boarded our bus by reading Mantralaya on the destination board but realised this bus was heading to Thane. It took another 50 minutes for the bus to reach Mithagar, Mulund East where I alighted at 7:47pm.
A view of BEST Bus A-490 at Mithagar, Mulund (Photo: Gandharva Purohit for BESTpedia)
In comparison with taking route A-138 to CSMT followed by a Thane slow local, my travel time was fair, coming under the two hour mark while the traffic congestion and unpredictable signals on highway resulted in a 2:17hr journey. Normally, the first bus reaches Mithagar by 7:20pm. It is difficult to imagine how the driver managed to reach Dadlani Park as traffic on the highway gets worse after entering Thane.
Conclusion
If someone from BEST is reading this, we’ll be more than happy if the following solutions are considered.
Limited stoppages with proper promotion attracting the passengers to opt for this bus. Taking the Ghatkopar Depot flyover similar to A-491 will save time.
The route board or display mentioning just the destination along with “via Eastern Freeway” will help improve the discoverability of this bus. The existing “source to destination” format creates confusion that can be solved with focusing on the destination and the route taken.
Sticking to peak hour time slots with an increase in schedules from two to four as more buses get inducted in the fleet.
This article is aimed to have a solution-oriented approach that is beneficial for both the passengers as well as the Transport Undertaking. BEST is losing its aged fleet with every passing day but the induction of brand-new buses from Olectra has gained pace in 2025, retaining the hope for survival. With the fare revision and fleet expansion in place, patience is the only thing we passengers have to offer.
Featured Image: Side View of Bus A-490 at Mantralaya (Photo: Gandharva Purohit for BESTpedia)
Alright, this might seem a little offbeat but hear me out. Let’s talk about cats. Cats are wonderful creatures. Sure, they may be naughty but they’re great at making people feel better. And they’re cute.
The internet is rife with pictures and videos of cats and kittens at various public transport hubs across the world, especially in Istanbul, Turkiye. Recently, videos went viral of a feline napping atop the turnstiles at a metro station in Bengaluru.
Since then, I’ve observed numerous felines across multiple transit points – mostly metro stations – across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai and Pune. In each case, someone either petted them or just gushed in excitement. I did both.
Cats are excellent creatures in public spaces. Apart from being adorable, they help in keeping pests under control. They’re natural predators and can easily take down mice, rats, pigeons and other creatures that can cause disease.
Take the Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office in United Kingdom for example. It’s role, as the title specifies is to catch mice in the government office. The role originated in the 1500s and has been prominent given how London was rife with rodents – often carrying disease-causing germs – which also ate a lot of the governments documents. Of course, that may not be the case now, but who does go “awwwww” when they see Larry the cat? Or remember the story of James Bowen (who sold the street newspaper The Big Issue) and his cat Bob?
There are numerous examples of cats in public transport. They’ve been known to board buses, trains, or just sit at platforms and sometimes take a nap atop a turnstile. They’ve been seen across the world, not just in the UK or Turkiye, but in Japan, France and other parts of the world.
Contrary to popular belief, cats are not some evil, self-serving creatures, but extremely lovable and cute animals. And they’re extremely adorable.
So what’s your view on this?
Featured Image: A Cat sitting near a Train (Image generated via OpenArt using Flux/Cute Crayon)
In a twist that’s almost as surprising as finding a techie without a smartphone, the clever folks at Uber over in Silicon Valley have set their sights on reinventing something we all thought was already pretty nifty: the bus. Yes, you heard it right! Those “innovative minds” from the San Francisco Bay Area have become quite the modern-day alchemists, turning the mundane into the “revolutionary,” from homelessness to success, and even trains.
Last month, Uber rolled out a new feature called “Route Share,” which promises cheap, fixed-route rides during those delightful rush hours in various American cities. Now, if this doesn’t make you think of your good old neighborhood bus, I don’t know what will! But wait, there’s more. This feature lets users save nearly fifty percent off the standard UberX fare. Imagine that! Shuttles will chug along predetermined routes every 20 minutes, all thanks to Uber’s Movement platform, which has more data on route patterns and traffic than your grandma has recipes.
Now, Uber isn’t exactly new to the shuttle game. They’ve had a Shuttle feature for a while, using different buses depending on the city. In India, they’ve even started using electric buses manufactured by Eka Mobility. Fancy, huh? These buses generally follow the Chalo Bus Model, and in Gurgaon, Uber operates something called Gurugaman Plus. It seems like Silicon Valley has indeed reinvented the bus, for probably the umpteenth time.
But let’s not stop there. Silicon Valley has a knack for reinventing all sorts of things. Taxes? Reinvented. Trains? Reinvented. Homelessness? You guessed it—reinvented. Elon Musk’s grand Hyperloop concept was essentially a high-speed rail, or in this case, a Maglev rail, dressed up in futuristic garb. And his Boring Company? Well, building tunnels for vehicles isn’t exactly a new idea, but hey, it sounds cooler when Elon does it.
When it comes to Uber, Ola, and their various counterparts, the difference is mostly that you can book a ticket on the bus, pay with the app, and have guaranteed seating. Essentially, what was already a feature in inter-city buses has now become a feature in intra-city buses. It’s like when Reliance Jio, after its ‘free’ phase during launch, essentially offered postpaid rates for prepaid plans. Groundbreaking, right?
And let’s not forget Ola’s Share Express feature in India, where you’d be picked up at specific points en route, just like a bus stop. It’s almost as if someone looked at a bus and thought, “What if we made it… an app?”
In case you’re wondering: A company namedCooperative Capital allowed neighbours to pool in money to enable them to ‘invest’ in their communities. That’s taxes. As for homelessness; well, the image below should help.
Did Silicon Valley reinvent homelessness?
Featured Image: Silicon Valley reinventing the bus, not metaphorically, but literally, generated by Apple Intelligence
