MTC’s faulty ticket machines play truant with dates and fare

There have been widespread complaints that the fare and destination are erroneous on tickets. 

Sources said faulty ETMs were to blame. MTC conductors said many ETMs were not defective and this caused faulty details getting printed on the ticket in spite of making right entries. 

Conductors said they had alerted the authorities but no action had been taken yet. ETMs were first launched in 2008 and subsequently, global positioning system (GPS)-based ETMs were introduced. 

However, ETMs were ill-maintained and conductors, of late, were reluctant to use these. But, the transport department made ETMs mandatory last year. Conductors said they faced a work issue on a regular basis as they faced the ire of commuters. 

An instance of a faulty ETM playing spoilsport happened on Saturday. All tickets issued by the conductor of an MTC bus (77V) were erroneous. It carried the wrong date (23.04.2018). When one of the passengers pointed this out, the conductor said that it was a server issue.

Officials said the conductors got the ETMs from the staff at the Electronic Data Processing sections in every depot. The, data operator enters details like bus number and date on a computer, which is in turn transferred to the ETMs through cables. All data is saved in a server. However, conductors said most ETMs remained faulty due to server issues and low batteries. “At times, when we press the button for issuing tickets, it gets stuck. Such situations cause a lot of difficulty. Also, some ETMs automatically get switched off,” said a conductor, preferring anonymity.

When contacted, a senior official of the Electronic Data Processing (EDP) wing of MTC said they had asked conductors to get the devices checked ahead of the shift.