The Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited, or DMTCL, has taken the initiative to procure 400,000 new tickets to overcome the single journey ticket shortage plaguing the metro rail.
The first batch of 20,000 tickets will arrive by the end of December. The remaining tickets will arrive in stages. The single journey tickets will also be returning to the previous design, but their colours will be changing.
On Wednesday, Dhaka DMTCL Managing Director Mohammad Abdur Rouf said that a consignment of 20,000 tickets will depart from India on Dec 16. They will arrive in Bangladesh by the end of the month.
"The cards are coming by train. That takes some time. We hope to receive them in the last week of December. Another 20,000 will arrive in the first week of January. All the cards will reach us in stages."
He said that if there are at least 50,000 single-trip tickets every day, the service can run normally. However, at the moment there are 40,000 cards, leading to a shortage.
"We can operate smoothly if there are 50,000 cards. But people have taken some of them. Other cards have been damaged due to technical reasons. And a few cards have been lost by customers."
Rouf said that Japan, Thailand and India have taken on a joint initiative to make the tickets. The main supplier is Japan, and the cards are printed in India.
The metro rail MD said the colour of the single trip card will change to red for easier identification.
"There was also a discussion about the design of the card. There will be no new design for the cards. The metro card will remain as it was in the previous design, but the colour will be changing. We are making the colour of the single-trip card red so that it can be easily identified."
Two types of tickets are issued for metro rail passengers in Dhaka. One is the MRT pass or rapid pass, and the other is the single-trip ticket. After purchasing a passenger rapid pass, it can be used until the balance on it runs out. Passengers can also keep the card with them.
Passengers travelling by themselves for a single trip have to buy a ticket immediately before their departure from the station and travel using it. The ticket must then be returned to the metro rail system when they reach their destination. The metro rail authority said that 248,000 single-trip tickets were issued when the rail service first launched. —bdnews24.com
