COIMBATORE: The Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) has returned to manual ticketing system as the service and maintenance contract given to a private player for the hand held electronic devices has ended.
The State government introduced GPS-based Electronic ticketing machines in 2013, as a pilot project, and adopted it for full fledged operation for a period of five years. The software and maintenance of the devices were outsourced to a Hyderabad based tech firm. Sources said the contract ended three years ago following which TNSTC has gone back to manual tickets.
Conductors are finding it difficult to adjust to the old method of maintaining registry of ticket sold and calculating the fare stage wise.
Rajesh (name changed), who works in the Coimbatore - Pollachi route, said, "Technology had simplified our work as we need not maintain details of ticket sold on stage wise and collection amount. For more than two years, we have been issuing tickets manually. Even experienced conductors are facing issue to maintain record properly whenever there is a crowd in buses."
M Anburaj, member of a TNSTC employees union said, "In the manual method of ticket issuing, not only conductors, passengers have to shell out extra fare. For instance, the fare from Coimbatore to Poondi (Isha) is `37 in an ordinary bus. During peak hours, passengers are given ticket of `50 as per officials' instruction. In the electronic method, the fare cannot be tampered. Since the electronic ticket shows fare with stages names, passengers would not be cheated by providing ticket with addition fare as they would easily identify."
When contacted a senior official in the commercial wing of TNSTC, said, "The contract with the private firm ended three years ago, and we have no option than go back to manual method of issuing tickets. Based on our continuous recommendation, the ministry of transport has decided to call for fresh tender for the electronic ticketing system. But, we do not know when the method would be rolled out."