Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking is losing huge sums of money every day due to glitches in its electronic ticketing machines (ETMs).
BEST replaced the manual fare collection system with hand-held ETMs around seven years ago. Many old, faulty ETMs need to be repaired and replaced, leading to a shortage at depots.
“At times, conductors queue up almost an hour before their duty starts, just to get a working ETM. At Ghatkopar, there are only 340 ETMs for 380 bus conductors. The depot got 20 more machines, but they were unusable as engineers had not programmed them,” said BEST committee member Sunil Ganacharya. When no electronic machines work well beyond seven years, what was the point in holding on to them, he asked.
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Shiv Sena’s Suhas Samant raised the issue at the BEST committee meeting on Thursday. Mr. Samant said that at nine of the 27 BEST bus depots in Mumbai, services on some routes were quietly being cancelled as conductors refused to work and even stayed absent because of the unavailability of ETMs.
There was no clear estimate of the losses BEST had incurred, Mr. Samant said. Congress leader Ravi Raja said losses of any magnitude were not good for the long-term health of the debt-ridden transport undertaking.
Committee member Sarita Patil said, “Conductors avoid using the old manual ticketing boxes, as they find them time-consuming.”
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Reimbursement losses
BEST is also losing out on reimbursements from the BMC for the zero-charge tickets issued to passengers like blind people and municipal school students. “We usually give the receipts to the civic body for reimbursements. But now, due to the faulty ETMs, there is simply no count kept of such people,” committee chairman Anil Kokil said.
The BEST committee also found significant under-reporting of passenger numbers. Many passengers are allowed to travel without tickets as conductors are unable to handle large crowds with manual ticket boxes, committee member Rajesh Kulkarni said.
Many depots have also suspended issuance of monthly passes because of the malfunctioning machines, Mr. Kokil said.
Contractor in trouble
BEST general manager Surendrakumar Bagde said the problem has escalated because the contractor who handles the ETMs has run into losses, and is thus unable to provide repair services. “The contractor’s employees have resigned because their salaries were not paid. We reached a stage where we paid their vendors and even their employees directly,” Mr. Bagde admitted. He said BEST is looking at alternatives to resolve the mess at the earliest.