The passengers of Dhaka Metrorail, especially the senior citizens and sick people, have been facing massive trouble to travel due to suspension of lift and escalator operation caused by technical problems over last few days.
Amid this situation, sufferings of the commuters also increased as Metrorail is facing ticket crisis for which many passengers had to leave stations failing to buy single journey tickets. Besides, sale of permanent cards, also known as MRT Pass, has nearly stopped due to supply shortage.
But, the sufferings have started relieving due to increase of supplying single journey tickets, and MRT or Rapid Pass in the stations after receiving around 50,000 tickets from the supplying company.
According to the Dhaka Mass-Rapid Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), they have already received around 70,000 tickets from the Indian manufacturers. Of the tickets, 50,000 have already been sent to the stations for sale and 20,000 tickets are awaiting clearance at Dhaka airport.
Passengers waited at the stations longer than the usual as the crisis of single journey tickets deepened. Many passengers even took alternative ways to reach their destinations. The police and Ansar members were allowing passengers to enter stations after enquiring whether they had any MRT cards.
Admitting the situation when contacted over phone, Dhaka Mass-Rapid Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) Managing Director Md Abdur Rauf told this correspondent that the situation began to improve on Sunday as they have already supplied 50,000 tickets to the stations.
The sale of single entry tickets and MRT or Rapid Passes has already started from Sunday. As a result, the pressure of additional passengers began to reduce. In this situation, the overall situation in the stations has also started improving and there will be no problem anymore.
He also said that some lifts and escalators were not functioning properly due to technical difficulties. Those were repaired, and made functional for carrying passengers. Some of the gates were kept closed due to additional pressure of the commuters. Now, all of the gates of the stations are open to the passengers, so that they can travel smoothly.
In response to a query over the shortage of tickets, he said that some passengers have not returned the single entry tickets they have bought from the stations. They have bought extra tickets than they need, and went without returning to the stations.
Those were taken with them to show others that they have travelled by the Metrorail. Besides, some of the passengers went back after buying tickets. It caused the shortage of tickets in the stations. Now, the authorities solved the problem and there will be no crisis of tickets any more, he assured, adding that another 120,000 cards will also come to the country at the end of January.
According to the DMTCL, about 350,000 passengers currently commute on Metrorail, 45 per cent of them using single journey tickets and 55 per cent using MRT cards.
According to the DMTCL, Japanese Nippon Signal supplied 310,000 single journey cards and 728,000 MRT cards for the Metrorail at the beginning. Almost all of the MRT cards have been sold. The DMTCL could not purchase new cards. So, they stopped selling it and kept some cards in order to replace the lost or broken cards during the period.
To address the crisis, the process is underway to arrange travel through the QR (quick response) code system.
