e-tickets for all Mirpur buses from Sunday

All bus companies [around 30] in the capital's Mirpur area will take passengers through e-ticketing system starting on Sunday - a move that stakeholders say will reduce the hassles of passengers and ensure tickets at fair prices. 

"e-ticketing will be launched in all public basses of Dhaka city by 31 January and in Dhaka and surrounding districts by 28 February," said Khandkar Enayet Ullah, secretary general of Bangladesh Road Transport Owners' Association, in a press conference in the capital on Saturday.

Public transport owners have recently introduced the e-ticketing system in some city buses on a trial basis. The move was appreciated by passengers and owners alike.  

The e-ticketing system is not online ticketing. Passengers will not be able to purchase tickets online. Rather, they have to buy tickets through digital point of sale (POS) machines that will be available at the ticket counters.

"A monitoring cell comprising two officials has been set up in Dhaka to resolve the complaints and problems of passengers. Three hotline numbers will be available to receive the complaints," said Khandker Enayet, adding that sufficient manpower has been appointed to manage the e-ticketing system. 

Besides, the owners' association will appoint eight workers by 20 November who will go around the city to check on buses. Apart from that, each bus company will keep a few checkers on their own, he said.

Around 60 transport companies are providing bus services in the capital, 30 of which are in the Mirpur area. Some 37 others are providing services in the suburbs.    

These 97 companies are managing the transport services through 5,650 buses. As the digital ticketing kicks off, drivers of these buses will no longer be allowed to operate the vehicles on the waybill system or cash payments.

The move aims to tackle the ill competition between vehicles plying the same routes – a common practice among drivers of public buses that resulted in uncountable accidents and fatalities, according to Enayet.

The transport owners in collaboration with Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) launched e-ticketing in eight Dhaka buses on 22 September on a trial basis. 

Dhaka Road Transport Owners' Association Office Secretary Samdani Khandkar, managing directors and chairmen of various bus companies, and leaders of Mirpur, Fulbaria, Syedabad, and Gulistan labour unions were present at the press conference, among others.

Transport stakeholders said the digitalised system will ensure transparency in the public transport sector. Because of e-ticketing, passengers will have proof of the fares charged by the companies and the owners will know how many passengers boarded their vehicles.