PayTM launches real-time bus location service down south

The Noida-based e-commerce company says it has now solved this big consumer pain point in bus travel

Courtesy the traffic congestion in cities, buses often get delayed in reaching the boarding points, what with the passengers ending up standing in scorching sun for hours together. PayTM Mobile Solutions, a Noida-based e-commerce company, says it has now solved this big consumer pain point in bus travel.

The company, part of mobile Internet services company One97 Communications Limited, today launched its real-time location tracking system for large bus operators in south India.

“The solution works whether the bus has real-time GPS system installed in it or not. Upon booking bus travel at PayTM, passengers will receive an SMS an hour before the boarding time giving them details of current location of the bus and the estimated time of the arrival at the boarding point,” says PayTM chief executive Harinder Thakar.

After working on this new feature for over six months to figure out the modalities and to make sure that the bus location information is more accurate, PayTM today launched the real-time GPS with 200 buses down south, with plans to roll it out for 1,800 operators across the country in a couple of months from now.

According to Thakar, the new service will also be available in 100 more cities like Hyderabad, Guntur, Vijayawada, Bangalore, Tirupati, Vizag, Mumbai, Nellore, Pune, Chennai, Erode, Salem, Madurai, Nagpur, Ongole, Coimbatore and Mysore shortly.

“The problems that Indian passengers face today in bus travel are still unsolved ... and there is clearly a large opportunity for us to tap into,” he adds.