With 1,800 omni buses operating daily from Chennai and more than 70,000 passengers traveling, a new bus booking website and app called ‘Romi’ was launched on Sunday by omni bus owners’ associations to reduce the commission costs of private online booking platforms.
From Chennai, around 1,200 omni buses operate daily to the southern districts of Tamil Nadu, and 600 buses operate to states and regions including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Puducherry, and Telangana. Across Tamil Nadu, more than 250,000 people travel every day on over 6,000 omni buses.
Commission expense due to private apps: At present, most passengers are booking omni buses through private websites and apps. For this, bus owners have to pay a commission amount to the booking platforms for every ticket.
This not only affects the revenue of bus owners but also increases operating costs. Moreover, because they depend on private booking platforms, bus owners face difficulties in managing their services, seats, availability, fares, and more.
To address these issues and reduce commission costs so that the benefit can be passed on to passengers, Tamil Nadu omni bus owners’ associations have jointly developed a new bus booking website and app called Romi.
At the launch event held in Chennai, All Omni Bus Owners’ Association president A. Anbalagan, vice president Sunil Kumar, Coimbatore Omni Bus Owners’ Association executives Senthil Kumar, Thirumoorthy, and others participated and launched the app and website.
Launch with 1,000 buses: Regarding this, they told reporters: This platform, created jointly by the Tamil Nadu Omni Bus Owners’ Associations, operates in collaboration with the Central Government’s ONDC Open Digital Commerce Network.
Initially, it includes more than 1,000 buses belonging to over 100 bus owners and more than 1,000 routes. Through this app, passengers can compare buses based on departure time, fare, type, and seating comfort, and choose and book the buses that suit them best.
It will be possible to know the full fare even before booking. In addition, the location of buses equipped with live tracking can also be known. This platform will help bus owners manage routes, seat availability, bookings, and more on a single platform, and reach passengers who use various apps through the OMTC network.
Passengers can download the app from the www.roamie.co.in website, Google Play Store, and Apple App Store to book buses, they said.
