You Can Now Explore Chennai For Just ₹1 With CUMTA’s Digital Ticket; Here’s All About It

Imagine booking a Chennai Metro ride for the price of a single toffee. That’s not a typo! It’s CUMTA’s latest dare to commuters: hop on a bus, metro, or suburban train for just one rupee, if you do it digitally! The One Rupee Ticket scheme in the Chennai campaign is redefining how the city experiences affordable, digital public transport.

CUMTA Launches ‘One Rupee Ticket’ Campaign 

The campaign, called ‘One Rupee Ticket,’ isn’t just a flashy offer. It’s a statement: a small coin for a giant idea. According to the New Indian Express, Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) wants people to see the city not as fragmented routes and ticket counters, but as one connected, breathing ecosystem of mobility.

Here’s how it works: commuters can log into the Chennai One app, select their route, pay online through BHIM or Navi UPI, and boom, they’ve got themselves a digital ticket for ₹1. It’s a once-per-user offer, meant to nudge even the most cash-loyal passengers into trying digital travel. The surprise? Follow-up rides can unlock cashback rewards too.

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How The Digital Ticket Scheme Works 

The one rupee ticket initiative in Chennai isn’t coming out of nowhere. When Chief Minister M.K. Stalin launched the Chennai One app in September, he promised a new era of “one city, one app, one ticket.” In its very first month, the app clocked 5.5 lakh users, processed 14 lakh journey searches, and enabled 8.1 lakh ticket bookings. Not bad for a city still testing the waters of digital mobility.

“The Chennai One platform is transforming how our city moves,” said I Jeyakumar, Member Secretary, CUMTA, as stated by the New Indian Express. He added, “With the Rs 1 fare offer, we’re inviting everyone to experience simple, digital-first travel across modes.”

The numbers tell one story, and the streets tell another. At bus stops in T. Nagar and near Central Station, commuters have begun flashing QR codes instead of rummaging for change. Conductors, some still squinting at the scanners, are slowly adjusting to this new rhythm. What the scheme really does is provide Chennai with a living lab for digital public transportation.

But transformation never lands smoothly. Reports suggest that only 2.7% of commuters currently pay digitally, a sobering reminder that adoption isn’t just about apps but about trust and access.

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Still, the ₹1 ticket feels like a spark, a psychological break from paper tickets and pockets of coins. It cuts cash-handling, builds data trails, and, perhaps most importantly, lets people see what seamless travel could look like. For Chennai, this campaign isn’t just about saving a rupee. It’s about spending it wisely on the future of urban movement. If this works, the city might just teach the rest of India what true multi-modal, digital travel feels like: one tap, one QR, one rupee at a time.

Cover Image Courtesy: chennai_one/X and uyscuti/WikimediaCommons