INDIA: A partnership to offer mobile fare collection and journey planning technology in the Indian market was announced by Masabi and Chalo on April 18.
Indian journey planning and ticketing company Chalo (previously called Zophop) is to integrate UK-based mobile ticketing and software-as-a-service supplier Masabi’s Justride Mobile Ticketing SDK into its app, allowing passengers to purchase and display tickets. Chalo will also license Masabi’s validation software.
Transport operators using the system would gain access to passenger and real-time vehicle information, helping them optimise services across their networks.
Masabi said Indians spend US$73bn/year on bus, metro, train and taxi fares, with 91% of this spent on local transport.
‘Developed markets have moved to smart cards, but 95% of India’s public transport tickets are still bought with cash’, said Chalo CEO Mohit Dubey. ‘With this partnership we can leapfrog to mobile ticketing, bringing us ahead of many developed markets, and saving the entire investment required for smart cards.’
Chalo currently operates across 13 500 buses in eight cities, supporting 130 million transactions per month.
‘In a country with one billion mobile phones, mobile ticketing is an obvious and compelling offering, and will make transportation one of the leading categories in our Digital India and cashless payments initiatives’, said Dubey.
