Better commuting experience for Delhiites! Plan to sell DTC bus tickets on Google Pay, Paytm

To sell public bus tickets in the national capital and map out all-electric vehicle charging stations in mobile apps, a team of IIIT-Delhi has set in motion a project to get platforms like Google Pay and Paytm. In order to help commuters plan their commute better, the project also aims to make available transit data of all DTC buses to companies for them to develop mobile applications, according to an IE report. The Delhi Knowledge Development Foundation, a Delhi government body, is supporting the initiative. For this purpose, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said that Rs 6.1 crore has been allocated so far.

An MoU has been signed by the government with IIIT-Delhi to set up a Centre for Sustainable Mobility, which will be headed by a faculty member at the institute, Professor Pravesh Biyani. Mapping out e-charging stations, scaling up contactless ticketing, as well as making DTC transit data available will be the priority in the immediate future, Biyani was quoted saying. They will try to ensure that in the next three months, at least 10% of all ticketing transactions in public buses is contactless, he said. Also, all these things will be available in the One Delhi mobile application, which is being developed by the centre for the government.

At present, e-tickets for Delhi’s public buses are available only in ‘Chartr’ app, developed by the IIIT-Delhi. In order to make bus tickets available, an API developed for this purpose will be made public for other e-payment portals, Biyani said. According to the report, API is an interface that enables software to share information over networks like the internet. If this bus ticketing plan works out, apps like Google Pay, Paytm will be able to add a feature on their platforms for paying for bus tickets along with route number, fare, destination, origination.