For the first time, the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking will introduce multi-purpose mobile vans which would move around the island city and possibly even western and eastern suburbs, to enable people to pay all their utility bills. This will start from April 7 wherein the first such mobile van will be put into service for South Mumbai.
People will be allowed to pay all bills of different utilities; be it prepaid and postpaid mobile bills, electricity, gas, school fees, telephone landline, cable, internet, broadband, insurance premium, water, DTH, buy/renew FastTag, municipal taxes and bills, property taxes, housing society charges etc. among other utilities that will be catered to. People can pay these bills using cash as well as digital payments using credit or debit cards, UPI and RuPay.
Lokesh Chandra, General Manager, BEST Undertaking said: "The services of these multi-purpose mobile vans will be starting from April 7. We are starting with one van this week and in total there will be 5 vans that shall be put in service".
According to BEST officials, the mobile van will be one of its kind, as it will be on the move and be parked at stipulated areas across the city for a certain period of time.
The BEST officials are working out a schedule for these mobile vans which will be operational for nearly 12 hours from at least 8 am till 7-8 pm; though the timings too are being finalized.
The timetable will also detail the location of these mobile vans at particular times during the day. Sources said that on April 7, they will inaugurate this facility with one multi-purpose mobile van after which others will be pressed into service.
This comes at a time when BEST is working out a mechanism to allow 10.50 lakh electricity consumers to pay using the 'Chalo App' which was launched to cater those who want to know the location of BEST buses.
The BEST will also roll out NCMC cards and 24×7 kiosks for bill payments. The Undertaking started additional bill collection centres in banks at 156 locations.
These facilities will allow people to pay their bills at their convenience across any of these locations nearest to the residence or offices. All these are apart from the online facility available.
