Commuters of Bengaluru have reason to cheer. The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has announced an upgrade to its ticketing system to enable payments using the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) that has been a demand from the public since its younger sibling, the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) enabled it in 2022-2023.
In a report titledTap, scan, go: BMTC launches smart ticketing across fleet in the Bangalore Mirror, it has been reported that digital payments made up close to 20 per cent of the corporation’s daily ticket revenue, driven by its static QR Code payments system. Interestingly, in another report titledPayment failed, Bangalore Mirror reports that UPI is not a preferred option in sub-urban, semi-urban and rural parts of the city due to connectivity issues leading to people preferring to pay cash.
As per the first report, BMTC is looking at getting Android-based ‘Smart’ Electronic Ticketing Machines (ETMs) which is kind of suspicious, since the existing machines in use are Android-powered Pine Labs machines. However, a contradiction is observed in the next paragraph, where it says that the ETMs are already in use. The demand for NCMC integration however is due to the fact that BMRCL is already using them and keeping this in mind, it would be fair to assume that BMTC won’t make the mistake of going for an ‘exclusive NCMC‘.
The ticketing upgrade will also upgrade the BMTC’s vehicle tracking capabilities, building on its Automatic Vehicle Location System (AVLS). While not reported, integration into mapping platforms using the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) is also a likely outcome.
Another change expected as part of the upgrade is the introduction of dynamic QR codes. Interestingly, in an report published by The Hindu, there was a demand for the existing static QR code system to continue, but the demand was for conductors to carry the QR Code as a badge as it was difficult to scan the QR Codes on the walls on the bus. In all fairness, the existing setup works perfectly and both, asking the conductor to carry it or a Dynamic QR code will merely make things more difficult.
Let us see what happens. Interestingly, BMTC in 2017 had partnered up with Axis Bank to establish an EMV open-loop payment system, nearly two years before the NPCI launched the NCMC framework It was quickly phased out a year later.. Among other factors, it was reported by Christin Mathew Philip of MoneyControl in 2024, 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. A rather deluded argument, if you ask me, but I sincerely hope that this does not give the administration any ideas to go in for an exclusive NCMC. Karnataka was the after all the first state in India to introduce electronic ticketing on 15 August 2004.
Featured Image: Conductor selling tickets with a Ticket Machine (Image animated using Grok/xAI)
So, one interesting debate that has happened recently is the question of which is better on a bus – the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) or the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC).
Interestingly, a lot of people (who don’t seem to use public transport, as evident from their tone) believe that UPI is a far superior option. In fact, in one discussion on Twitter (I refuse to call it X), I was told by a self-described techbro that UPI is convenient as people have their phones handy and use UPI to buy chai and flowers, and specified that taking out the wallet to take out an additional card in a crowded bus was a burden and not advisable. Sure, but typing out my UPI PIN in front of 30 other people is kosher. Or making others wait while you enter your pin, and the transaction takes its time is absolutely alright.
But let us not digress. We’re now solely looking at which is better, NCMC or UPI. UPI is a great option if either you or the conductor does not have change (or cash for that matter) and you don’t have an NCMC as well. Conversely, if everyone is accepting NCMC and you have one, you can use it here too, right?
Now, in order to test this hypothesis (if you can call it one that is), I used both NCMC and UPI to buy tickets. I used the NCMC at two places: BEST in Mumbai and MTC in Chennai and UPI at two places: BMTC in Bengaluru and MTC in Chennai.
Let’s start with NCMC. It’s easy to use. In most cases, you hand over the card, say NCMC or Metro Card and that gets the job done. With BEST, I was unsure if my RBL NCMC would work, the conductor reassured me by saying that “he’d make sure it worked”, while with MTC, I have told most conductors that it is a valid card and that I have used it before but eventually they accept it. The whole process is quick, takes about five seconds and is often faster than cash because the conductor does not have to count for change. There’s really not much to say because it is a fairly simple and straightforward process. The only time consuming part is to convince the conductor that the card is valid. This has happened with my RBL, Ongo and Airtel cards.
An NCMC ticket issued by BEST (Pic: BESTpedia)
The only issue is that the card needs to be topped up after 20 or so transactions (some lame protection feature apparently) and this happened with me recently. The conductor topped my card up for ₹0. Since my phone supports NFC, I figure the easiest workaround for this is to top up the card for smaller amounts, rather than loading it up for the entire ₹2000 that the card can support.
Another issue is that of the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR). Some transport companies charge extra for this, such as BEST, while most absorb it into their fares. Here is a quick breakdown of BEST’s MDR charges for different fare stages (Regular/Limited/Express/AC): ₹5 – 6 paise ₹10 – 11 Paise ₹15 – 16 paise ₹20- 22 paise ₹6- 7 paise ₹13- 14 paise ₹19- 21 paise ₹25- 27 paise
An NCMC ticket issued by MTC (Pic: BESTpedia)
Now, coming to UPI. This is where things get interesting. I’ve used two different methods of paying via UPI. One is with a static QR Code on BMTC and the other is with a dynamic QR Code on MTC.
A UPI ticket issued by BMTC (Pic: BESTpedia)
Now, the BMTC model is very simple. BMTC began accepting UPI payments in 2020, during the lockdown to reduce contact between passengers and commuters. BMTC Finally Starts Cashless Ticketing, Uses UPI-Based QR Codes For Transactions Each bus has its own virtual payment address (VPA, often erroneously referred to as UPI ID) which is the bus’ registration number attached to a Canara Bank Account; Eg: KA57Fxxxx@cnrb. QR Codes for the same are pasted in different parts of the bus, and in some cases, they are also present in the transparent grab handles of the bus.
BMTC QR Code Sticker on the bus (Pic: BESTpedia)
In my case, neither the conductor, nor I had change, so he told me to scan the QR Code and pay. I did, showed him the successful transaction screen and he issued the ticket. This method is extremely popular with passengers using it for as low as ₹5. However, there seems to be no way for the conductor to validate the payment. However, since the ticket machine being used is a standard Pine Labs point-of-sale device, maybe it appears there. This being said, it is high time that BMTC and Canara Bank adopted the NCMC. The process is reasonably fast, although it depends on how fast your internet connection is and multiple people can pay simultaneously making it relatively faster than dynamic QR Codes.
A UPI ticket issued by MTC (Pic: BESTpedia)
Now, coming to the Dynamic QR Code. Here, the conductor has four options on the ETM – Card, UPI, NCMC and Cash. When the conductor selects UPI, it generates a dynamic code that one scans and makes the payment. This is time consuming since it also depends on the speed of the internet on the ETM as well. Only after the QR Code is generated, can you make the payment. Thus, the total time taken to print the ticket takes close to 10-15 seconds. A downside according to me is that the QR Code appeared as invalid on MobiKwik, forcing me to use GPay. The QR Code must be compatible with all payment apps under NPCI’s BharatQR system.
MTC QR Code displayed on the ETM (Pic: BESTpedia)
Overall, it seems that the NCMC is ahead, but let me share two instances that make it the clear winner.
The first instance. A few weeks back, I was traveling to Bangalore. Now recently I have been getting off at Shanthinagar TTMC (Atal Bihari Vajpayee TTMC ) and taking a bus back home. I usually pay by cash but on this day, I had only a ₹500 note on me. This was the week after I first used UPI to buy a ticket. Unfortunately for me, my phone battery ran out, and for some reason, my phone refused to charge, either from my battery pack or from the USB port on the bus. (The cable was at fault, I bought a new one). Which meant that without a phone, I had to pay in cash, which was also a problem since I didn’t have change. Eventually I managed to make change at a shop inside the terminal, albeit the shopkeeper gave it to me grudgingly.
The second instance is a more recent one. On 12 April, UPI services faced a five-hour long outage. This was the longest in over three years and one of four such outages over a three week span.
Now, both these instances were unprecedented and of course problematic.
So, what could be the solution? Going back to the Card? Maybe. At least with Transit.
UPI was introduced to ensure that transactions were conducted domestically, therefore reducing their costs. But then, NCMC is entirely built atop the RuPay platform which operates domestically, unlike Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover.
This is not to put down UPI however. It is a fantastic platform. However, in cases like public transport, which experiences high volume density of transactions, it makes more sense to use the NCMC.
What are your thoughts? Do let me know in the comments section below.
Last week the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM/BMC) announced a ₹750 crore financial package for the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking as part of its annual budget for 2021-2022.
MCGM also announced that it will appoint a consultant to introduce reforms within the undertaking in order to improve efficiency and improve ridership. BEST had received an allocation of ₹918 crore in the previous year.
Among the initiatives proposed under the budget, BEST will modernise its bus depots, implement an intelligent transport system, focus on improving commuter experiences and also procure more buses on the wet-lease model.
Let’s hope BEST goes forward with its plans.
To know more about depot modernisation and how it works, do read this article I had written in 2017 about the Dindoshi Depot’s plan by WRI.
A month ago, I had spotted BMTC running trials using JBM’s Electric Bus fleet on Bannerghatta Road. In that post, I had also mentioned that BMTC had received bids from Veera, Ashok Leyland, and Olectra for trials of electric buses under the Centre’s FAME programme. Now while Olectra and JBM’s buses are popular across the country, the only city that used Ashok Leyland (AshLey) EVs was Chennai’s Metropolitan Transport Corproation (MTC). Launched by chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami in 2019, the buses are 9m long midi-buses and are completely air-conditioned.
Today, I spotted one of these buses on trials with the BMTC on Bannerghatta Road. Below id the image of the bus.
Ashok Leyland AC Electric Bus on Bannerghatta Road (Srikanth Ramakrishnan/BESTpedia via Wikimedia Commons)
Ashok Leyland had tied up with Swiss-Swedish ABB Group to manufacture electric buses. I had interestingly, blogged about this back in October 2016; do read it here.
That’s all for the time being. This is really just an update, not more.
When you step out, please do take appropriate precautions.
While walking along Bannerghatta Road, I happened to spot a bus that seemed odd. At the first glance, it looked a lot like the Tata Starbus Hybrid Diesel-Electric bus that BEST operates in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC). As the bus came closer, I noticed that it was not a Tata bus, but rather a JBM bus.
Here is the picture of the bus that I snapped.
JBM EcoLife Electric bus on trials with BMTC on Bannerghatta Road (Srikanth Ramakrishnan/BESTpedia via Wikimedia Commons)
The bus is a JBM EcoLife Electric bus, bearing a green number plate with a Mathura (UP-85) registration, presumably because JBM has a bus manufacturing plant at Kosi Kalan, Mathura.
According to JBM’s page on the bus, the JBM Solaris EcoLife has two models, a 9m and 12m one. This is presumably the latter. Both have an 80-160 KW motor powered by a Lithium battery. It can be charged either with a plug-in mechanism or a pantograph. The bus features two inswing doors, one at the front and one in the centre, and features a manually operated wheelchair ramp.
This is the second time BMTC is trialing electric buses, the last one being the BYD Utopia in 2014. Cities in India are moving towards electric vehicles under the Modi Sarkar’s Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) scheme.
In 2015, BMTC had trialed a diesel-powered bus manufactured by Japan’s UD, a subsidiary of Sweden’s Volvo AB. Here is a snap of that too.
Volvo UD SLF on trials with BMTC (Srikanth Ramakrishnan/BESTpedia via Wikimedia Commons)
Coming back to electric buses, BMTC operated the BYD Utopia for about 4 months in 2014 but deferred purchasing it due to the high price tag of ₹2.5 crore attached to it. In October, The Hindureported that BMTC was receiving buses from Olectra, JBM and Ashok Leyland for trials. It also received bids from Veera Vahan Udyog. Veera is a Bangalore-based manufacturer of buses that has supplied a significant amount of BMTC’s Suvarna and JnNURM buses back in 2009. It has also been manufacturing three-door buses to take on the German Contrac Cobus 3000; some of these can be spotted at Kempegowda International Airport, operated by GlobeGround. Veera is also setting up a plant in Ananthapuramu (Anantapur), Andhra Pradesh to manufacture 3,000 electric buses a year. As reported by Bangalore Mirror, JBM is the lowest bidder to supply 90 buses.
Other cities that currently use JBM buses include Navi Mumbai. The Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) undertaking operates the blue-coloured 9m JBM EcoLife E9 bus, mostly along AC-105 from CBD Belapur to Bandra Railway Station (West).
Last month I had posted about the BMTC installing cycle racks to the front of their buses. I had also mentioned that the BMTC and BBMP were setting up dedicated cycle lanes across the city including a pop-up cycle lane along Outer Ring Road next to the existing pop-up bus priority lane.
Thanks to Twitter user Nihar Thakkar (@Nihart1024), I got to see some of the work being done. Here are some images and videos of the cycle lanes.
For starters, here is a cycle parking stand under the split flyover at Agara Junction on Outer Ring Road.
This is on the Service Lane of ORR near the junction of the road bound for Whitefield. You can see the under-construction section of the Purple Line bound for Whitefield.
Sadly, BBMP is using plastic reflective bollards. These bollards are pretty flexible and can easily be damaged. Someone on a joyride in the middle of the night can just mow down these bollards. I do wish, more sturdy ones or even a fence similar to the one that NHAI uses to separate the service lanes from the main carriageway on Hosur Road was used.
Work is moving at a brisk pace on both the north and south bound lanes. Hopefully markings and signage is installed soon for an effective trial. pic.twitter.com/ZBzHqPjLd0
Since the Cycle Lanes are separated by bollards, the likelihood of people parking their cars on them is limited. Also, since they are on the right hand side of the service lane, it is on the side of the road where nobody would (hopefully) park. I sincerely hope that BBMP replaces any damaged or removed bollards to prevent cars from entering these lanes and also does something to prevent motorbikes from entering these lanes. I also hope the cycle lanes don’t disappear when the road is resurfaced (as it happened in Jayanagar) and that BBMP will maintain a uniform quality for the road surface.
That being said, I hope pedestrian infrastructure is next in the pipeline.
Going a step ahead in trying to make Bangalore a friendlier city for cyclists, BMTC has installed cycle stands to the front of their buses.
Managing Director of BMTC C Shikha said that the fabrication of the stand was done by employees at BMTC’s Central workshop at Shanthinagar. In a report for Times of India, Christin Mathew Philip says that the BMTC also plans a pop-up cycle lane for 16 km between Central Silk Board and Lowry Medical College where a bus priority lane has also been marked.
Here is what the new cycle racks look like.
OMG! Just spotted a BMTC bus with a bicycle rack! The driver was really nice and let me try it out 🙂 🚴🚴 pic.twitter.com/7iAE6MImYv
This is the second time that the BMTC is experimenting with cycle racks on buses. The last time, Volvo had installed cycle racks on a few Volvo 8400 buses operated in and around Whitefield in 2011 but the experiment fizzled out after a while.
Apart from buses, Namma Metro too allows cyclists to carry their cycles on metro trains but only foldable cycles that can pass through the scanner ae allowed.
In a report for The Hindu, BMTC Chairman N.S. Nandiesha Reddy said that while 100 buses would initially be fitted with cycle stands, it would eventually be extended to the entire fleet.
Bangalore has experimented in many forms to get people to start cycling.
Between 2011 and 2012, the city partnered with Kerberon Automation to set up cycle stands across the city to promote the concept of rented cycles. Fixed cycle stands were set up in core areas (such as the Brigade Road bus stop where G-4 starts). Users would have to pay a deposit, get a smart card and then use the cycles. Around the same time, cycle lanes were made available in localities such as Jayanagar by demarcating the outermost section of major roads as cycle-only. However, these lanes were mostly used to park cars – which although a punishable offence was rarely punished. Eventually, they vanished, either after being dug up to lay utilities or when the road was resurfaced and the cycle lanes no longer marked.
By 2018, dockless cycles from private players such Yulu, Zoomcar PEDL and Ola Pedal had found a market in the city.
Let’s hope this time, the city learns from its past mistakes and promotes cycling in a big way.
P.S: If you’re planning to cycle around, do consider wearing a good mask. I’ve personally tried the 3M Aura Particulate Respirator to work well. It complies with NIOSH N-95 standards. Do check it out below. You can also try out the Savlon one if 3M masks are out of stock (which they are most of the time). Savlon is a good brand, owned by ITC (earlier Johnson and Johnson). Alternatively, you can try Wuerth, which was the first FFP1 standard mask that I tried.
Featured Image: Cycle Rack on a 500-D by Nihar Thakkar.
The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking, which has pioneered the use of rolling cloth displays for its destination boards on buses for decades since inception, has finally found a solution to a problem that has plagued it for the last decade. Thanks to the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM; whose logo is a jurm for being ugly), most buses got themselves route indicator boards that were LED (light emitting diode) displays.
In the first five years since LED route indicators were introduced (2007 onwards), they stopped working. While BEST did try to fix them and look for alternatives including using a chalk board, the culprit was soon identified. The displayed began malfunctioning when buses were washed. Rumour has it that BEST contacted its southern counterpart, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) in 2013, asking them how LED display units were functional after washing the bus. They allegedly received a very simple response: “What does washing a bus mean?“.
Keeping all this in mind, BEST has now decided to go a step forward and get a new technology using one of the most abundant elements available – dust. Yes, that’s right, BEST is now using Dust-Written displays now. Below is an image of one such display on Route 200 from Shrawan Yeshwante Chowk (Kala Chowky) to Versova Yari Road Bus Station.
After pioneering Rolling Cloth displays for decades, BEST buses are sporting a new technology: Dust Writing Displays.
We got in touch with freelance dust expert and garbologist Rajgira Khamandhokle to learn more. Readers may be reminded that Rajgira Khamandhokle is a frequent traveler on buses, having not once, but twice learnt a valuable lesson from a conductor. (You can read here and here)
We learnt that a dust-written display is extremely power efficient and eco-friendly. When we asked what would happen if the writing gets washed away in the rains, we were told that the amount of dust being kicked up on Mumbai’s roads would easily settle on the glass panel, making for an easy re-drawing.
The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) through BEST is sensitising the need of washing hands and that fans of the MCGM are seeing this as an eye opener campaign to bring down Covid19 (Wuhan Virus) cases in the city. An MCGM spokesperson who wanted to remain anonymous said that anyone who writes the destination on a bus would be given free sanitizer. Though he wanted to remain anonymous and that we over here don’t care about such a concept, we would like to informe that he doesn’t work at the Ghatkopar Depot and his name is not Mahesh Sakhalkar.
On noticing Tanu loves Manu written on one of the buses, Tinder was trying to capitalise on the new system and save the sinking Titanic.
Note: The above article is meant to be humourous.Please don’t register a police complain or send goondas to the writer’s residence.
Featured image: A cloth display on Bus 342 from Goregaon Station (East) to Kokan Vikas Mandal via New Zealand Hospital by Bhavik Vasa (via Twitter)
Last month I wrote on how we needed to look at changing our ways of transacting in order to reduce the risk of contamination using physical currency. One of the points I had made was to target the transit sector in order to get people opt for cashless transit.
Many of of us expected the 2016 demonetisation to be the catalyst for a shift to cashless methods of travel, sadly it did not take off well. A year later, the situation was no different in adoption of digital payment systems in public transport.
In September 2018, the Central government finally announced the launch of the ‘One Nation, One Transport Card’, a rebadged version of the previous government’s long-dead More Card project. The National Common Mobility Card (NCMC), was finally launched on 5 March 2019 (also my birthday) but is still being rolled out and as of now is only available on the Delhi Metro.
Older readers of BESTpedia would remember that I had spoken to BMTC officials in 2016 on their Intelligent Transport System (ITS) and the impending release of a prepaid card for buses (similar to what Mumbai’s BEST has). While the smart cards were never a part of the ITS, they were due to be released by the end of 2016 but that did not happen.
The Times of India on 27 May reported that BMTC would implement a new measure to enable cashless transit in its buses. While initially implemented on 70 buses, it is now being expanded to 1,000 buses of the 3,500 buses that are currently on the streets.
The cashless ticketing system, however is not what most of us expected.
Each bus is equipped with a quick response code (QR Code) that is compliant with BharatQR and uses the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to make payments. Passengers can use any UPI-based app such as Paytm, Google Pay, or PhonePe to complete the transaction and once the transaction is done, the conductor issues a ticket.
Here is an image of the conductor with the QR Code handing around his neck.
It is important to note here that the QR code based payment isn’t direct cashless ticketing, but rather a cashless transaction after which the ticket is issued manually. It isn’t similar to the QR code based ticketing used by the Indian Railways using the UTS app, or by Metro Rail systems in India. The latter uses QR codes on phone screens or paper tickets that are scanned at the turnstiles rather than the commuter scanning them with their phones.
While this is a good move in the interim, it would be good to see BMTC implement a full-fledged card-based payment system, on the lines of the NCMC.
The unintended side-effects of this move
The QR code idea, however has its merits. The direct consequence would be more people adopting UPI as a payment method over physical cash systems. Commuters using UPI would mean that anyone remotely connected to the BMTC network –from a food vendor at the bus station to a tea stall frequented by staff – would start accepting UPI as a payment method. The entire “Local Economy” would end up making use of it over time.
All in all, this is a much-needed push by BMTC. The next stop would be a complete integration on to the NCMC so that we can go truly cashless. Who knows, the next big thing may be transcos accepting USSD-based payments as well. Alternatively, BMTC needs to push for app-based payments, similar to what Ridlr offers for BEST where a user purchases a ticket with the app which in turn generates a four to six digit number. The commuter tells the number to the conductor, who validates it with the ETM.
BMTC finally goes cashless, and how.
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Last week, trains, buses, metro all were operating at half capacity.
BEST banned standees, while the metro asked people to sit in alternative seats. They also then reduced services by half.
🙏Mumbaikars are requested not to travel standing in the BEST buses from tomorrow onwards as a preventive measure against the prevailing #COVID19 situation in the city. #bestupdates#Mumbai
Because it leads to overcrowding because not all people could work from home.
Plus, many were trying to get home.
Abandon! The attempt to lock down due to #CoronavirusOutbreak is having an opposite effect. More crowding at stations as people are swarming trains to leave the City of Dreams -Mumbai, going back to native places. Railways running special one-way trains to facilitate them now… pic.twitter.com/DazO1PtkcW
Note: This was before a complete lockdown happened.
Featured Image: Closed section near the driver’s cab from the interior in trolleybus 8010 on Line 74 in Budapest, at “Ötvenhatosok tere” trolleybus station. The section of the trolleybus near the driver’s cab is closed to protect the driver from the threat of coronavirus infection. (Vauia Rex/ Estonian Wikipedia)
