Mirpur route buses launch e-ticketing today

All 30 companies operating buses on the Mirpur route in the capital will introduce e-ticketing today.

Sixty companies operating buses across Dhaka city will bring their 3,314 buses under the e-ticketing system by January next year while 37 more in the capital’s suburbs will follow by February, said Bangladesh Road Transport Owners Association General Secretary Khandaker Enayet Ullah at a press conference on Saturday.

Once fully implemented, 5,650 buses in Dhaka and its suburbs will be under the e-ticketing system. Enayet said bus owners would not operate buses contractually from now on, which would reduce the tendency among drivers to race in order to pick up passengers.

Anarchy and accidents involving public transport would also reduce, he said.

He further said they had started e-ticketing experimentally on September 22 to restore order in Dhaka city's road transport system.

“In the beginning, owners backed out as they did not get the full ticket sales income. We carried out field inspections after that and started a ticketing system by installing machines onboard.”

Enayet said buses of eight companies now have the e-ticketing system.

“When owners started receiving proper ticket sales revenue because of e-ticket machines, they became interested in the system. In the last one month, we held a series of meetings with all bus owners in Dhaka. About 21 meetings were held,” he said.

Highlighting the advantages of e-ticketing, the transport leader said, "Earlier, there was no income from e-tickets. But after installing machines onboard, the income increased.

“These machines allow bus owners to keep track of ticket sales remotely. However, owners have to employ one extra worker per bus to manage the system.”

Enayet said it had also become possible to stop the practice of collecting extra fares from passengers.

“Passengers buy tickets from designated points before boarding buses. Besides, if someone boards a bus from anywhere on the road during the journey, the ticket worker will give him a ticket. This means there is no possibility of collecting extra fare,” he explained.