The BEST’s proposal to print over 36,000 packs of tickets at a cost of ₹1.71 crore, which can be used when electronic ticketing devices fail, has run into controversy.
On Tuesday, the BEST committee members sought sanction for the proposal and complained that the electronic ticket issuance machines (ETIM) were faulty, old, unreliable, required long hours of charging and often malfunctioned in the middle of bus journeys. Ravi Raja, senior BEST committee member, said, “How can BEST go back to paper printed tickets after electronic devices were introduced way back in 2010?
He added, “While we are talking about Digital India, we are now back to printed tickets. These machines are already old stock. They have exceeded their shelf life of five years. You can’t be kept repairing them for long.” Mr. Raja said that the ETIMs should have been replaced more than a year ago.
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Last year, BEST general manager Surendrakumar Bagde sent back 3,000 new machines made by Trimax on a pilot basis after it failed to gain the approval of a consultant. Mr. Raja said, “The technology cannot be changed based on the whims of every new IAS official who gets transferred to the BEST.”
Senior Sena leader Suhas Samant demanded a criminal enquiry into the issue and said faulty machines would lead to huge loss of revenue. Mr. Samant said, “While on the one hand, we are working hard to revive BEST, on the other we are losing revenue daily due to faulty machines. Which officials claimed Trimax to be the only company with such technology?”
He added, “The earlier general manager of BEST had shut down the printing press and transferred the entire staff by claiming to shift to electronic ticketing. And here, we are back to printing paper tickets.”
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Mr. Bagde said, “Printed tickets constitute less than 1% of our entire ticketing system. We were merely trying to replenish our stock. We were trying to print tickets with higher denominations to make it easier for conductors to issue tickets. Earlier, conductors had to club tickets of smaller denominations for long journeys.”
He said that the BEST was entirely dependent on Trimax, the company which BEST officials had claimed, was the only company in India to have electronic ticketing technology. The entire contract has been handed over to Trimax, which has led to delays in the repair and maintenance of ETIMs.