BENGALURU: With the purchase of QR (Quick Response) tickets on one’s mobile for travel on Metro rapidly gaining popularity among Bengaluru Metro commuters, it has recently rolled out QR paper tickets at two stations on the Purple Line - MG Road and Cubbon Park stations. A total of 14 QR ticket machines have been installed at the stations and it takes only a minute to purchase a paper ticket with the QR code imprinted on it.
Chief Public Relations Officer, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), BL Yashwanth Chavan told TNIE, “It is a pilot project, that aims to help commuters avoid standing in queues at counters to buy tokens. One can self-use the machine and print a QR ticket.”
These green-hued compact multi-lingual kiosks has a contractor’s staffer seated nearby to assist users. Eight were installed in the concourse area of the Cubbon Park station, while six were installed at MG Road station.
“The machines were installed just a week ago. Currently, an average of 70 to 80 commuters use them daily. It proved very useful at Cubbon Park station during the recent IPL match with many ditching the long queues for regular paper tickets to the QR machines.
The new initiative also helped management of crowds in the station. It is likely to be extended to other Metro stations gradually,”explained a Metro official.
AS Shankar, executive director, Operations and Maintenance, BMRCL said, “The mobile QR code ticket has become popular among our commuters. It crosses 1 lakh ticket bookings during the weekend.”
The person assisting public at Cubbon Park station states, “The payment process should be completed within two minutes to avoid repeating it.” Another official said, “There are times when one’s mobile network is not operational or the battery of the commuter has drained and the QR ticket cannot be used. At such times, this physical QR ticket is very useful. Token vending machines were introduced years ago at Baiyappanahalli and Indira Nagar stations but the machines were complicated and it was not popular among commuters.”