Freecharge, owned by Snapdeal, said users of BEST public transport buses in Mumbai can pay for their tickets using its wallet service.
This has been achieved by tying up with Ridlr, the official mobile ticketing app partner of BEST.
“BEST commuters can now pay for their bus tickets and monthly passes digitally, saving them the hassle of finding change every day and waiting in queues at bus depots for renewal of passes,” the mobile payments company said.
BEST is the government-owned utility transport company of Mumbai and runs thousands of services carrying 3.5 mln commuters per day.
It is also the first public intra-city bus agency to full support digital payments in India.
To buy a BEST ticket, all the user has to do is to get on the bus, enter the bus & trip details in Ridlr and pay using the FreeCharge wallet to get the token.
This token can then be showed to the conductor when asked to get the printed ticket.
To recharge the BEST pass, the consumer needs to enter her 14 digit card number, pay the amount using FreeCharge and get it validated from the conductor on her next trip.
It is not clear how big a success this will be, as one has to enter the details such as route number and boarding and deboarding point. It is likely that the app will save the details once entered, which will be convenient for regular commuters.
However, the payment mechanism is likely to be a good option when faced with lack of ‘change’.
FreeCharge similar tie-ups with redbus, Rapido, Jugnoo, Shuttl, mybustickets.in.
In addition to booking BEST bus tickets and recharging passes, a consumer can also use the Ridlr app for booking Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) AC route tickets and recharging their Mumbai Metro smartcard while paying using FreeCharge.