The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) is likely to appoint a new contractor to maintain and repair Electronic Ticket Issuing Machines (ETIM). Malfunctioning ETIMs have plagued the transport utility BEST, and the contract with operator Trimax expired recently.
Surendrakumar Bagde, General Manager, BEST, said, “We will be seeking a new contractor to maintain and repair these machines. The proposal will be placed in front of the committee for its approval in the next meeting.”
On July 13, the BEST Committee rejected the proposal to extend the Trimax IT Infrastructure and Services Ltd’s contract. The company had been appointed in 2010 to provide and maintain ETIMs. The contract ended in 2016 and has been extended several times since then. The last extension expired on June 30.
Only 2,678 of the 9,508 ETIMs are functional, resulting in BEST reverting to paper tickets on several routes. At present, around 70% of BEST’s ticketing revenue comes from ETIMs.
According to Mr. Bagde, the contract will be for six to 12 months, and will be discontinued once the administration finalises a contractor to provide new machines and a ticketing system in line with the Integrated Ticketing System (ITS).
