Use of e-tickets on public transportation is unregulated

E-ticketing was officially launched last Tuesday to restore order in the capital’s public transport. E-ticketing system was seen to be operational in few buses on Wednesday. Most buses charge ticketless fares. Passengers say that the driver-assistant is cheating with tickets. Collecting additional rent.

Yesterday at the Mohammadpur bus stand in the capital, it was seen that the driver-assistants of ‘Swapno’ transport were collecting fares without tickets.

Apart from this, e-ticketing service has not been started in buses of Savar route too. Imran Hossain was coming from Savar in Moumita Paribahan. He told , “We have never seen the system of e-tickets on this road. Most of the buses I have seen in Dhaka have problems. Sometimes they say the machine is broken, sometimes there is no ticket.”

The driver-assistant of Swapno Paribahan told without disclosing his name that the bus is new on the Mohammadpur route. Because of this it will take some time to get e-ticketing.

Passengers complain that most of the transports still collect fares through waybills (without tickets). They get an opportunity to collect extra money because they charge station-wise rather than distance-wise fares. Most passengers, especially standing passengers, are charged ticketless fares. The amount of rent increases as the night progresses.

Bus helpers collect fares without issuing tickets despite having e-ticketing machines. If a passenger asks for a ticket, he gets a ticket. Many times passengers complain of not even asking for tickets.

It can be seen that ‘Achim’ transport has e-ticketing machine. However, the driver-assistant is collecting the fare without a ticket. After taking off from Mirpur-1, fare collection starts as soon as you reach Mirpur-10. At this time, only those passengers who have asked for tickets have been given tickets.

Mahbub, assistant to the driver of Achim bus, told about not giving tickets to everyone, “There is a small amount of paper in the machine. It ends in the evening. Some passengers don’t want to pay the fare if they don’t have a ticket, so we reserve tickets for them.”

Passenger Humayun Ahmed said, “Not only in Achim Paribahan, but in all buses, the picture is the same. He told , “I travel from Mirpur to Banshri every day. During the day, there is a little orderly rule, but after the evening, irregularities continue. The ticket is not available, on the contrary, the fare is also demanded in high amount.”

Shawon Ahmed, a passenger of the Mirpur Metro bus coming from Azimpur to Asadgate, told , “E-ticket is the next thing, the fare has not been taken properly yet. Always have to pay 2-4 taka more rent. When the ticket was given, the fare was still high. We have no place to speak.”

Secretary General of Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association Mozammel Haque told , “We applaud the e-ticketing program in all public transport of the capital. Although it has not yet been implemented in all public transport. In e-ticketing only fixed fare is collected from one station to another station. But the government has fixed the fare according to the kilometer. The Bus Owners Association and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority have been requested to determine the fare according to the kilometer.”