Despite complaints and repeated technological failures, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking (BEST) has approved the extension of contract of a private firm, Trimax, which provides
Despite complaints and repeated technological failures, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking (BEST) has approved the extension of contract of a private firm, Trimax, which provides ticketing services through hand-held terminals.
Trimax had been given a five-year contract for data collection of the tickets given to commuters and also provided the actual hand-held terminals that produce the tickets. However, conductors have been constantly complaining that the devices have too many glitches. “The device just stops working all of sudden and during peak office hours this is the worst thing that can happen to us. We have to then give the old tickets (to commuters), which is okay as a temporary fix, but a lot of the time there are conductors from the younger generation who are lost on how to work the old ticket system,” said a conductor.
The BEST committee that approved the extension saw heated debate amongst its members over the extension. “Why are we giving an extension to a company that should in fact be black-listed by the BEST forever Their machines are useless and instead of bringing relief to the conductors and helping make their work easier, these conductors end up clearing the accounts of their collection an hour after their shift is over,” said committee member Kedar Hombalkar.
There have also been complaints from ticket collectors that the device given to them that verifies the passes of commuters has also been encountering technical issues.
BEST general manager Jagdish Patil appealed to members to allow the extension as the contract expired on September 2 and BEST would have to shift to manual ticketing on Saturday, September 3, if the same wasn’t done.
