Aaditya Thackeray inaugurates Mumbai's first completely digital bus service

Maharashtra State Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray, on Wednesday, inaugurated the city's first completely digital bus on the Gateway of India to Churchgate route, with a unique Tap-in Tap-out feature.

"Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) is India's first bus service to go completely digital," said Aaditya Thackeray.

"We will be implementing this in all 10 buses on this route in a few days and later expand it on all 438 routes across the city,' he added.

According to Lokesh Chandra, the General Manager (GM) of BEST, "this is the first-ever 100 per cent digital bus service of the country, aiming to increase the digitisation of bus ticketing system."

"It provides ease and convenience to the travellers as they can tap-in using their smart card or via the 'Chalo' app installed in their smartphones," said GM.

"After completing the journey, the traveller gets a receipt on their mobile phone if they Tap-out using the app and can also collect their ticket if they used the smart card," he explained.

Initially, the inaugurated Tap-in Tap-out service is a part of two buses only, but the service providers are likely to deploy this digital bus service for 200 routes in the city, soon.

Travellers who commuted through this fully digital bus were found praising the step towards digitisation.

"It was a much-needed initiative for travelling in a city like Mumbai," said Jatin, a commuter.

He said that the journey became more convenient as it was completely contactless, with no interaction with the ticket checker.