TSRTC resorts to manual ticketing as machine upkeep goes for a toss

Hyderabad: Going back to square one, the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) has begun to use its old method of issuing tickets by manually writing an amount on paper. Due to lack of maintenance and scheduled servicing, the ticket issuing machines (TIM) installed in RTC buses are not providing the print of tickets. The driver-conductor have to manually write the details on a piece of paper and hand it over to the passengers.

There are around 180 machines in each depot across 28 depots in the Greater Hyderabad limits and technical glitch is been witnessed in almost all the machines. Both the drivers and conductors are finding it difficult to manually write the ticket to each passenger. Conductors said that the ticket printing problem is due to cheap quality paper, rolls and no upgradation of the machines. These machines were introduced in 2000 and the RTC extended the service in 2013 to many buses in the city.

Conductors said that the tech glitch is due to lack of maintenance and poor quality of paper roll.

A conductor on the condition of anonymity said, "As we have to write the tickets for the passengers, it is taking time for us to reach them due to which many passengers alight without paying for a ticket."

He said that they had also been facing severe hardship with the machines for printing tickets. "Most of the time they have been forced to leave the passengers on the way and had to return back to the depot if the machine stops issuing tickets. The management is not taking any initiative to repair the machines but is taking action on conductors and drivers for errors done by the machines," added the conductor.

Another conductor from the city said that the machines were hanging mid-operation and were hard to use.

"The keyboard has become hard and our fingers hurt after punching out the tickets. There is a need to upgrade the machines."

According to the passengers, they were giving the amount of the ticket for their destination, but the conductor is failing to issue the ticket print. Conductors said that there is a problem in the machine and gave a piece of paper by manually writing the amount and other details.

"RTC claims to provide the best quality time in travelling through its service, but unfortunately it has failed to provide ticket prints and is issuing manual writing tickets," said G Raghu, a passenger at Mehdipatnam.