Mumbai: To enable cashless payments at the city’s busiest toll plazas, commuters now have the option to make toll charges using QR code placed at the toll counters. In the city, there are six toll plazas, namely LBS, Vashi, Airoli, Dahisar, Mulund and Rajiv Gandhi Worli Sea link.
This initiative has been started by MEP Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, a toll collecting agency along with e-Paisa and aims to cover maximum vehicles dealing with cash transactions and encouraging faster payment through the digital mode.
Thus, it will help the transport sector’s transition to digitalisation.
Commenting on the plan, ePaisa Chief Business Officer PravinKumar Bhandari said, “In the last few years, we witnessed UPI payment option that gained a great success in India and was used by all age groups. We feel the QR Code payment option can curb cash transactions in this transport management vertical.”
As per the data, India is witnessing a rise in digital transactions, however, the pace is slow especially compared to China.
As per iResearch, China’s third-party mobile payment transactions rose 22.6 per cent in the second quarter of 2019. Whereas some 72 per cent of India’s consumer transactions take place in cash, double the rate in China, according to a March report by Credit Suisse Group AG.
Adding to this, Shahin Kunnath COO of ePaisa explained that “Even though China is ruling the payment market, the Indian Government is giving equal opportunities to both small and large players unlike China, which is a booster for immediate growth in the payment sector.”
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) nodal agency for all six toll plazas was unaware of the QR code payment option.
