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New riders face trouble as prepaid ticket stock poor

December 24, 2024 00:00:00


MUNIMA SULTANA

Riding metro rail by new riders is likely to be difficult as stock of two types of permanent prepaid tickets runs low amid a crunch of one-time tickets.

Against this backdrop, no speedy process of buying more cards is in sight yet.

Against a daily demand for 5,000 store value tickets (SVT), which are known as MRT Pass and Rapid Pass, sources said 20,000 MRT Pass and 80,000 Rapid Pass cards were now in stock.

Another riding option is single journey ticket (SJT), which is also running out of stock with the loss of more than 200,000 out of 313,000 cards.

This dearth has led to the closure of several entry gates in stations of the under-operation metro rail from Uttara to Motijheel.

According to officials, 50,000 SJTs are now available with vending machines of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line-06. Such tickets are used more than twice daily by occasional riders.

Insiders and experts said shortages of Rapid Pass, MRT Pass and SJT have been apparent for lack of cooperation and management to increase the stocks by monitoring data of passengers.

"Two authorities-DMTCL and DTCA-were not cooperative with each other to ensure smooth supply of the cards leaving passengers are in dilemma," said one of them seeking anonymity.

Since the Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) allowed selling Rapid Pass from its station counters on Friday, sources said an estimated 15,000 rapid cards sold till Sunday.

The DMTCL stopped selling MRT cards, although 20,000, according to officials, have been kept for emergency purposes as many existing users often seek new cards in case of lost or damage.

The state-owned metro rail company brought 729,200 MRT Pass cards and 313,000 SJTs under a package of the MRT-06 project in 2020.

Meanwhile, the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA), which is the clearing house of both SVT cards, introduced Rapid Pass in 2018 with a mandate to use one card for all modes of transport in 2017.

But the DMTCL did not allow selling Rapid Pass from any sales booth after launching the operation of the rail in December 2022.

The demand for SVTs and SJTs started rising after the first metro rail in the city extended both service time and length in January 2024.

DMTCL officials said they could not convince the DTCA to allow purchasing 500,000 MRT Pass cards last June.

Preferring anonymity, a senior official said the DTCA did not permit in line with the government's objective to introduce one ticket for all, including metro rail and city buses, to bring discipline in the transport sector.

He, however, said a procurement initiative has already been taken and the selection of a supplier is almost at its final stage. It now awaits the approval from the Road Transport and Highways Division (RTHD).

Talking to different officials of DMTCL, DTCA and RTHD, the FE found that although a tender for buying 300,000 Rapid Pass cards was called at the end of August, RTHD is yet to approve the selection process for lack of competitiveness.

DTCA earlier bought over 300,000 Rapid Pass through open tender method (OTM) in phases, as it is the method to select the company for supply.

They said an SVT card has a chip inside made by Sony Corporation of Japan and all participating companies has to be comply with all necessary specifications with a competitive price for each card.

Currently, 1.20 million MRT and Rapid Pass cards are available with MRT riders, which were bought at Tk 250 on average.

Some 60,000 were bought in first phase under the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-supported project and the remaining 400,000 in different phases

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