Final phase of trial for contactless bus ticketing system to begin in Delhi from Monday

New Delhi: The final phase of the trial of the contactless ticketing system will begin in the around 3,000 cluster buses run by the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) through the 'Chartr' app from Monday (March 1), a transport department statement said.

The trial of the app is already underway in all 3,760 buses operated by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), it said. Approximately, four lakh tickets have been booked using the app so far. The pink tickets for women passengers, who travel free of cost in public transport buses, comprise 67 per cent of the total tickets booked through the app, it said.

"The total daily ticket booking through 'Chartr' app is around 10,000. In the last 10 days, the ticket count through this app has witnessed around a 10 per cent increase on a daily basis," it said. The app has seen a progressive increase in the number of users since its trial began and over two lakh people have downloaded it since its release, it said. The trial of the app was launched in August last year amid rising numbers of COVID-19 infections in the city. 

The one-month trial would cover all the routes of DIMTS buses.  In the last week of February, the trial of this app was extended to all 3,760 DTC buses till March 31. 

Chartr has been developed with the technical support of the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT-Delhi). E-ticketing in DIMTS was started in August last year on route number 473. The total number of buses increased to 550 thereafter in a phased manner.

In DTC, the trial of this online ticketing app was started in September last year on route 534 in Ghazipur and Hasanpur depots. It started in a total of 35 buses from both depots. 
The transport department in collaboration with IIIT-Delhi trained all the depot managers and the staff of around 50 depots who trained bus conductors as they play a crucial role in the whole system, the statement said.

The passengers can take an e-ticket through the app after boarding the bus. A user can also view all stoppages of a bus and the expected time of arrivals (ETA) at a bus stand for the next half hour.
A user can buy up to three tickets for a journey. 

The app automatically suggests a pink ticket for female passengers based on the gender entered by the user. A female passenger can buy one pink ticket for each journey.
More features such as the option to buy a monthly pass, pre-booking, postpaid ticketing are likely to be included in the app in near future, added the statement.