Mumbai: 50% of BEST commuters opt for tickets on its app

Mumbai: BEST's app users are now 50% of total daily commuters travelling by the red buses, sources in the undertaking said on Wednesday.
“We have a daily ridership of 30-31 lakh passengers; 15 lakh users have switched to the Chalo app for purchasing digital tickets or passes which range from daily to monthly/quarterly, etc,” said a senior official. From Thursday, the Chalo app will include yet another feature, which will enable electricity consumers of BEST to pay their power bills through the app.
"By providing the option of paying bills online through Chalo; we are eliminating the need to visit BEST counters for bill payments," said BEST general manager Lokesh Chandra. "We have received overwhelming response to our digital app, which is why we decided to include our 10.5 lakh electricity consumers in the island city who can now board buses as well as pay bills using the same app," he said. “All that a consumer needs to do is to navigate to the menu bar to find the electricity bill option, enter their consumer number and make the payment online within seconds.”
BEST also announced on Wednesday a facility in the app to recharge the Chalo smartcard. Users will have to just key in the card number and pay online to top up the e-wallet in the card.
Digital smartcards and Chalo are being used by many commuters in the '100% digital buses' introduced lately on the office-going route between CSMT and NCPA. “All they need to do is tap in the card/mobile on a small gadget near the entry door and while alighting, tap out on the same machine," an official said.