Pune: PMPML launches digital payment option

Pune: Soon, if you happen to travel by the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) bus, you will have to scan a QR code to pay for the ticket for your journey. This digital payment option of paying through QR code scanning will be implemented on a trial basis initially at the Pimpri, Bhosari, Chinchwadgaon and Nigdi bus terminals.

The PMP buses are operating on selective routes during the lockdown and are also following social distancing norms by allowing just one passenger to occupy the seats meant for two. Once the lockdown is relaxed further, the number of passengers commuting through PMP buses will increase and thereby challenges faced by the conductors too will increase. One such challenge is about handling cash transfer between passengers and the conductor and the proximity between the two during the journey.

To overcome this problem, the PMP administration has opted for digital payment through QR code. In this payment mode, the passengers can just scan a QR code and their payment will be made to the PMP bank account directly. The PMP officials have also approached the bank officials to make this payment mode feasible for all citizens.

The PMP administration has implemented this payment mode on a trial basis during the first and second lockdown when bus travel for persons engaged in essential services was allowed.

The PMP officials had then issued passes to such passengers only after digital payment through QR code was made. PMP bus service has been allowed in the Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporation area and hence digital payment trials in the first stage will take place at bus terminals there.

"To reduce the quantum of currency notes or coins handled in the buses and also to minimize the contact between conductor and commuters, we have thought of the digital payment through QR code option. Since there are minimal passengers presently using the PMP service, it would be easier for us to implement this payment mode," Ajay Charthankar, Joint Managing Director, PMPML told mediapersons.