Though the Rapid Pass crisis is now over after the procurement of more than half a million cards recently, no measures have been taken yet to introduce such integrated circuit (IC) cards in other public transports.
Transport experts said there are opportunities to introduce Rapid Pass for air-conditioned buses, vehicles using the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor, Hatirjheel water taxis, Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) buses, etc.
Its use can also ensure proper functioning of the bus route franchise system in Dhaka city, they also said.
They claimed that the successful use of IC cards in the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line 6 had not encouraged other transport operators to introduce the system.
Besides, the authorities are reluctant to create a situation for others to go for a united ticketing system to bring discipline in mileage fares through cashless transactions, experts added.
Officials said Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) and Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) have now adequate Rapid Pass stocks to meet the growing demand.
They said 70 per cent of their riders are now using Rapid Pass and MRT Pass, with both being IC cards. Besides, daily ridership recently exceeded 430,000.
MRT Pass is used only for metro rail, while Rapid Pass has been introduced for use in all transports.
After MRT 6 was launched, DMTCL faced MRT Pass and Rapid Pass, as well as single-journey ticket, shortages due to what they described as damage and cards stolen by passengers.
Due to conflicts between DMTCL and DTCA, the supply of Rapid Pass had also been disrupted for several months.
DTCA, which works as the clearing house authority for Rapid Pass, once introduced Rapid Pass in circular bus services, such as Hatirjheel Chakrakar and Gulshan Chaka. But the service could not be continued for not introducing the necessary infrastructure and facilities for specific passengers.
DTCA officials claimed they would soon introduce Rapid Pass for BRTC buses on the Shibbari-Gulistan route, but the software has not been finalised yet.
The software will be finalised after the approval of the fare chart for the service, they added.
Rapid Pass was officially launched in 2018 for a BRTC bus, which was discontinued as most point of sale (POS) machines distributed among bus operators became inoperative.
It has also been alleged the POS machines were made inoperative as they prevented bus fare anomalies.
Whenever DTCA planned to introduce Rapid Pass in other transports, it failed for not doing so through specific software development and infrastructure, such as passing gates or machines at entry gates of buses.
The MRT stations have validator machines to automatically deduct fares from cards.
smunima@yahoo.com
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