Online Payment Companies Plans To Increase Growth By Focusing Bus And Metro Commuters

Peer-to-peer transactions and merchant payments have been at the vanguard of India’s digital journey. But another cash-heavy sector involving payments for commuter services, such as rides in buses and metros and tickets at toll plazas, is slowly moving away from currency notes.

The National Payments Corp of India (NPCI), in partnership with banks and the highway authorities, is trying to digitise toll payments by implementing FASTag. Separately, various payment entities such as Paytm, MobiKwik and Ridlr are trying to move daily metro and bus tickets from cash to digital.

Brijraj Vaghani, founder of Ridlr said “We are working with the Navi Mumbai transport service, Mira Bhayandar Transport Company and where commuters can buy their tickets and monthly passes through Ridlr. About 10% of the 2 lakh active pass holders on BEST buses use Ridlr, and around 4% of the user base of the other suburban bus transport modes in Mumbai are shifting to Ridlr. We have just started our service in the Mumbai Metro on November 16 and we are already seeing a 5-7% growth per day in usage.”

It has also partnered with Mumbai Metro to allow commuters to buy the tickets digitally and have integrated with gates at stations to make them capable of scanning the QR code on commuters’ smartphones.

Paytm has also partnered with a lot of major city bus services and so has MobiKwik, allying with entities such as Aamchi Mumbai, Mumbai Metro, Gujarat State Road Transport, Uttar Pradesh Transport and Himachal Pradesh Transport. The country’s largest digital payments company, Paytm, is also targeting daily metro commuters in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi.

Kiran Vasireddy, chief operating officer at Paytm said “Commuters can recharge their metro cards through Paytm on the go. They can also pay for their tickets by scanning the Paytm QR at the metro counters directly, at the metro operator’s website, or on the app. We have also enabled buying digital metro tickets on our platform.”