With revenues taking a downturn, the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has been looking at alternative means of cash flow. Rising diesel prices and the Shakti scheme giving free rides to women implemented by the incumbent Congress government have caused the corporation’s revenues to nosedive over the last few years.
As reported by Christin Mathew Philip for MoneyControl, the Corporation is now looking at playing audio advertisements on its buses. According to officials, since all BMTC buses are equipped with a functional passenger information system (PIS) that announces upcoming bus stops, playing advertisements in between them is the plan. The corporation will soon call for tenders for the same. This follows the BMTC’s plans to advertise on the back of bus tickets, a move announced barely a month ago.
This is undoubtedly a good move and has been adopted by metro operators, particularly Reliance Infrastructure-led Mumbai Metro One (MMOPL) that operates the Blue Line of the Mumbai Metro. BMTC will however be the first bus operator to toy with audio ads.
Non-fare revenue is always a great idea, however, what led to the Corporation’s revenue plumetting is another story.
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)
In a very interesting twist of events, a few private bus operators plying along the tech areas of Kolkata have decided to accept UPI payments due to an issue with spare change. One some routes, bus operators have to shell out commissions of up to 10 per cent to get change for larger amounts, leading to significant losses. Thus, they’re looking at digital payments to plug leakages, according to a Times of Indiareport dated 31 May 2025.
Several buses have started doing this, and based on the success rate, all 38 buses on the route may switch to digital payments. Most of the buses ply on the Barasat, Santragachi, Botanic Garden, Howrah Shibpur, route which serves passengers going to New Town.
The move was welcomed by a lot of people, including those from Kolkata Bus-O-Pedia, a Facebook group of busfans. Members of the group said that they had seen the system in use in Bengaluru on BMTC buses. They also cautioned bus owners and asked them to frame the QR code to prevent it from being manipulated.
Fun fact: A nearly identical article by the same author (Dwaiyapayan Ghosh) featuring similar quotes was published by the Times of India on 25 January 2023.
At this time, I am yet to ascertain whether WBTC buses accept digital payments or not although I know they have printed tickets.
Featured Image: Cartoon Man Scanning QR Code inside Bus (Le Chat/Mistral AI)
In an interesting move, the Indian Railways has decided to pilot a access control system at stations to both control crowding as well as reduce leakage of revenue. Many a transit fan has been advocating this for a while now, with some of us arguing that the best time to do this being the 2020 lockdown. However, in hindsight, that would have been difficult. However, it is not too late.
Indian Railways began work after learning from the Mahakumbh of 2025, a high-population event. In a press communique published via the Press Information Bureau in March, the IR announced various measures taken. The first measure taken was the creation of holding areas at various station to ensure that passengers were allowed to enter the platform only when the train arrived. Holding areas were created at several stations, with the main ones being Surat, Udhna, Patna and New Delhi for the festival season of 2024. Arrangements were repeated at nine stations in and around Prayagraj during the Mahakumbh with pilot projects being implemented at New Delhi, Anand Vihar, Varnasi, Ayodhya and Ghaziabad. Permanent holding areas will be implemented across 60 stations where complete access control would be implemented. As part of the access control measure, holders of confirmed tickets would be given direct access to platforms, while those holding waitlisted tickets or without tickets would be in the waiting area and all unauthorised entry points to the station would be sealed.
Two new footbridge standards – 12 metre (60 feet) and a 6 metre (40 feet) wide – have been designed which will be installed across all 60 stations. CCTV cameras will also be installed across the station with a war room to accommodate all officers being established to handle crowded situations. One very exciting development is the deployment of communication hardware including walkie-talkies.
The sale of tickets will also be regulated, especially during rush hours and the issue of platform tickets will be halted at such times, barring for those who are reaching the station to aid those who may require assistance.
The Railway Board has tasked the zones to identify railway stations to further establish electronic access control, similar to rapid transit systems. Western Railway has announced a list of 12 stations, of which three – Bandra Terminus, Andheri and Borivali – fall under the Mumbai division.
While most of what the Railways’ has said relates to long distance trains – made evident by the fact that the three stations in Mumbai that WR has chosen all have long-distance trains halting there – it is still indicative of what future plans are.
It is at this time that Indian Railways can consider integrating the NCMC with the network. Especially given that passengers will be restricted to the waiting area till the train arrives, an opportunity appears for it. Specific turnstiles at the station can be configured for the class of coach that will halt in front of it. I had written earlier about possible ways to integrate NCMC with the railways earlier, do read: Indian Railways Should Get On The NCMC Bandwagon.
Additionally, there are certain changes about the NCMC system itself that will be required for its optimal usage. A detailed article on this will follow soon.
Featured Image: What AI thinks Indian Railways with a turnstile looks like (Generated with Flux/Pikaso/Freepik)
Close on the heels of its older sibling BEST, the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) has announced that it will increase it bus fares, the first fare hike since 2014. Earlier, there were 40 fare stages up to 78km with a fare increment every two kilometres. Under the new fare structure, there will be six stages for the first 30 km with fares going up every five kilometres, and for the next 50 km, there will be five stages with a fare increment every 10km, totalling 11 fare stages.
The new fare structure, shared by PMPML is as follows:
PMPML’s new revised fares as of May 2025
Under the new fare structure, daily pass rates have been revised to ₹70 for a unified pass across both city areas. For the PMRDA area, the pass rate has gone up to ₹150.
According to a report in The Free Press Journal, the new system also aims to promote digital ticketing, namely integrating PMPML ticketing with the Maha Metro-HDFC Bank One Pune Card which is an exclusive NCMC (it works in other cities but other cards won’t work on the Pune Metro). I hope that PMPML does not make it an exclusive system either and accepts all NCMCs.
Getting PMPML buses onto the NCMC platform is indeed good news as it goes a long way in promoting a common mobility card, something that makes a lot of sense in a city like Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
Featured Image: Conductor selling tickets with a Ticket Machine (Image animated using Google Gemini)
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)
It’s official. The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking is finally revising its fare after slightly over five years. And while most media publications are describing it as a ‘sharp’ or ‘significant hike’ it is isn’t all too bad. The new fare structure has got approval from the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) and is currently awaiting approval from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Transport Authority (MMRTA). Officials say that the fare hike was unavoidable as the incumbent fare structure was too low and the undertaking was bleeding revenue. Prior to the fare reduction, the minimum fare in BEST’s non-AC buses was ₹8.
As per reports, the minimum fare would be doubled, essentially reaching the next fare stage of ₹10 for non-AC and ₹12 for AC buses.
The new fare structure is given below
Fare Stage
Non AC Fare
AC Fare
0-5km
₹10
₹12
5-10km
₹15
₹20
10-15km
₹20
₹30
15-20km
₹30
₹35
20-25km
₹35
₹40
The rates for weekly and monthly passes have also been raised. There will also be additional surcharges for leaving the limits of the municipal corporation and crossing toll plazas.
Featured Image: Conductor selling tickets with a Ticket Machine (Image animated using ChatGPT/OpenAI)
