Chennai buses to introduce cashless ticketing system on all routes, in phases

The Metropolitan Transport Corporation has currently introduced cashless ticketing on two bus routes

Photograph used for representational purposes only

While Transport Minister M.R. Vijayabaskar has tweeted that a cashless payment system will be introduced in Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses, it remains to be seen how popular this move will be, among commuters.

MTC launched cashless transactions for purchasing tickets from Monday, on two bus routes bound for the Secretariat, on a trial basis.

A senior official of MTC said a commuter could purchase tickets using any mobile payments apps including Paytm, Google pay or Amazon pay, by scanning the QR code fixed in a few places in the buses. The official said the cashless system is similar to the purchasing of suburban train tickets using the QR code affixed near the ticket counters at railway stations.

The MTC has introduced the cashless ticketing system on two routes of buses heading to the Secretariat currently -- the bus from T. Nagar, and the one from Todhunter nagar in Saidapet.

The MTC official said cashless ticketing would be expanded on more routes once complete bus services are allowed in the city, especially on the IT corridor.