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The Octopus Card |
Ok, so I’m pretty sure they have not come out with anything like this in Mumbai yet and honestly I’m not surprised. If it took the Maharashtra government nine years to build the Bandra- Worli Sea Link, this might take them even longer to do. What I’m going on and on about is one of the things I miss most about Hong Kong, the Octopus card!
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Octopus Scanner at McDonalds |
The Octopus is a card that perhaps 95% of Hong Kong’s population uses. It initially began as a card that one would fill money into and use on trains, buses and ferries. Instead of having to dig deep into your bags and look for change, the user would just need to place the Octopus on a scanner and the scanner deducts money from the card. As mentioned before, the card was introduced to make travel easier; however the Octopus has evolved with time. Nowadays, Octopus users can use their cards at so many different locations. They can pay for food, pay for groceries, pay for medication, pay for parking on the road and even pay phone bills. Restaurants like McDonalds and KFC have installed Octopus scanners so people can pay with their Octopus cards for their meals. Round the clock convenience stores like 7-Eleven have installed scanners such as these so that people can buy essentials and pay phone bills regardless of the time.
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An Octopus Scanner at the MTR |
The Octopus card has made people in Hong Kong VERY lazy, but at the same time it has made daily life as easy as ever. With the implementation of a system like this in Mumbai, life would become so much more hassle-free. Lines at train stations for tickets would be almost non-existent, travel and daily life would be more efficient. The Octopus is the best thing that has happened to Hong Kong and I guarantee it will have the same effect on Mumbai.
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Octopus Add-Value Machine |
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