BENGALURU: Commuters travelling on BMTC’s Hebbal-Silk Board route reported glitches in the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation’s (BMTC) UPI-based ticketing system on Wednesday, with several passengers claiming their bank accounts were debited of money but tickets were not generated, forcing delays and disputes onboard.
In one incident witnessed by TNIE, a woman boarding a bus at Kalyan Nagar sought a ticket to Banaswadi, costing Rs 12. After scanning the dynamic QR code displayed on the conductor’s ticketing machine, the payment was successful and money was debited from her account, but no ticket was printed. She attempted payment again using another UPI application, but the ticket still failed to generate despite the transaction going through.
Another passenger then tried paying Rs 12 on her behalf, which was also debited without a ticket being issued. With Rs 36 deducted in total and still no ticket, an argument broke out between the passenger and the conductor. The bus halted for nearly 8-10 minutes before the conductor eventually issued a ticket.
The conductor maintained that whenever a UPI payment is successful, the electronic ticket is automatically generated and for him, not printing meant the transaction was not complete.
In another instance, Divya Kumar, who was travelling from Tin Factory to Banaswadi on a Volvo bus, told TNIE that the QR code failed to generate tickets for multiple passengers. “The conductor finally asked if anyone had cash. One passenger paid in cash, and the rest transferred the amount to him,” she said.
Similar complaints have surfaced on social media. One commuter posted that non-functional UPI payments were causing major inconvenience as most passengers no longer carry cash and conductors often lack change. Another user specifically flagged the issue on buses operating on the Silk Board-Hebbal route, urging BMTC to resolve the technical problem at the earliest.