Delhi govt to launch ‘ONE Delhi’ app to cater to all transport needs

Through the ‘ONE Delhi’ app, passengers travelling in Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) or cluster buses will also get a 10% discount on their journey tickets. The discount will also be valid on other partner apps such as Chartr and PayTM, transport officials said on Thursday.

The Delhi government will this month launch a mobile application to unify all transport-related transactions such as paying for a bus ticket or locating an electric vehicle charging station in the national capital.

Transport minister Kailash Gahlot has directed officials to keep the app ready for a formal launch, which was scheduled to take place by Wednesday. (Arvind Yadav/HT file photo)

Through the ‘ONE Delhi’ app, passengers travelling in Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) or cluster buses will also get a 10% discount on their journey tickets. The discount will also be valid on other partner apps such as Chartr and PayTM, transport officials said on Thursday.

Transport minister Kailash Gahlot has directed officials to keep the app ready for a formal launch, which was scheduled to take place by Wednesday. However, senior officials said the launch will take another week or two since the department is still working on making it compatible for iOS users. The One Delhi app is ready for Android users, officials said.

The app will be available in English and Hindi.

Users of the app can also book pink tickets, meant for female passengers, who are not charged for bus rides in the Capital.

Passengers can also book monthly or yearly bus passes using the app by scanning a QR code placed in buses, selecting the fare, or source and the destination stop.

The proposal to offer a 10% discount, like the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) offers to all its SmartCard users, was approved by the Delhi cabinet, led by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, on July 16. The Delhi government’s contactless ticketing app has been undergoing extensive trials under a special task force since July last year and initial reports have shown that tickets booked through the app account for 6% of all ticketing done in Delhi, a government spokesperson said.

Delhi has 6,750 DTC and cluster buses, and an average of 4.9 million passengers use the network every day, a ridership much larger than the Delhi Metro, which clocks an average daily ridership of about 2.5 million.

A senior transport official said the move is also expected to save the government’s printing, staff and data storage costs. The department also said the app-based ticketing system will help generate better passenger boarding data, which can be analysed to rationalise routes and better services for the passengers.

“We are in the process of putting up QR codes in all DTC and cluster buses, at bus stops and at all inter-state bus terminals (ISBTs). The QR code will be used for scanning and making online payment for the bus journeys, while availing a 10% discount. A back-end team is also being arranged that will exclusively handle the app,” said a transport official on condition of anonymity.