Mira-Bhayandar: Commuters no longer need to worry about carrying cash for ticket purchases while travelling in public transport buses, as the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has tied-up with PhonePe to introduce the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) facility via Quick Response (QR) code.
As a part of the initiative, conductors have been assigned a unique QR code lanyard. Commuters have to ask for the fare amount to their respective destinations, scan the code using any UPI-enabled app, enter the amount and PIN to make the payment directly from their bank accounts.
After a successful week-long trial in five buses, the MBMC has extended the facility in 60 out of the 90 buses and for the remaining, QR codes will be assigned to the conductors in the next few days. “This is our one more step towards digitization. Commuters will not have to go through the hassle of dealing with cash or worry about exact change.” said an officer attached to MBMC's public transport authority.
The fleet of buses which include regular, AC Volvos and Midis are operating on more than 20 routes in and out of the twin-city. While the number of commuters travelling on a single day is between 95,000 to 1 lakh (including pass holders), the daily collections hover above Rs 9.5 lakh.
The MBMC has implemented a wet leased gross cost contract model under which two private agencies have been roped in to operate the public transport system.
Under the model, buses are owned, maintained, and driven by a private contractor who also pays for fuel (charging) in exchange for a fixed per-km rate and generates income through advertisements. MBMC only deploys conductors to collect revenue through ticket sales.
As the ridership is witnessing a significant surge, every passing day, the civic administration projects the figures to cross 1.25 lakh in the coming months.
