Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot reviewed the phase-2 trials of the contactless e-ticketing app in cluster buses on Friday. He also conducted a real-time inspection of the app on route 429 during by purchasing a ticket.
The department has started the phase-2 trial of contactless e-ticketing app ‘Chartr’ in its cluster buses. The trial is being conducted by a Special Task Force, which consists of expert members from Transport Department, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-D), Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System Ltd. (DIMTS), Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and World Resources Institute (WRI).
The app has been developed with the technical support of IIIT-Delhi. The phase-1 trial of the ‘Chartr’ App was conducted for three days on all cluster buses of route number 473.
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“Now that we have increased testing and are witnessing another spike in cases, an app-based contactless ticketing is crucial in minimising surface contact. This is a very simple and smooth process, and I could book my ticket in a few seconds. I am extremely happy to note that within five days of starting trial, 6% of total ticketing on the selected routes are being done through the app now,” the Transport Minister said.
Ticket booking
Passengers can take an e-ticket through the app after boarding the bus. The app can be downloaded from Google Playstore. One can also WhatsApp “Hi” on 9910096264 to get the app URL. A user can also see all stoppages of a bus and all the buses arriving in the next half an hour with details like expected time of arrival (ETA). The ETA also gets updated real time during the passenger’s journey in the bus. Once the passenger reaches their destination as entered in the app, the ticket becomes invalid.
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The ongoing 14-day trial of this app covers 332 cluster buses on 14 routes. Apart from these cluster buses, the trial will also be extended to 29 DTC buses on route number 534. So far around 20,000 tickets have been purchased through the app, out of which, more than 75% are pink tickets purchased by women passengers. The app has seen a progressive increase in the number of users since start of its trial.
In order to understand and address passenger requirements, passenger opinion survey was conducted alongside the trial. Nearly 96-98% passengers seemed very satisfied with the app and assured continued usage.