The seamless travel card introduced in Mumbai on the lines of London’s Oyster card is finally taking shape. An Oyster Card is an electronic pre-paid card that gives a commuter access to all forms of public transport in London.
Called ‘Go Mumbai’ card in Mumbai, today the card can be
used on both the suburban railways and the BEST. It will now be extended in fleet taxis and at toll nakas. The Western Railway (WR) launched this scheme a fortnight back.
The card has been launched, but there is lack of maintenance, resulting in a weak response. Commuters complain that most of the machines used for validating these cards don’t work.
“The validating machines of this card don’t work at many stations. Also there are technical faults like some machines for first class or second class tickets don’t working,” said Madhu Kotian, member, Railway Passenger Association.
“The response is poor and there are several complaints against the Go Mumbai card, compared to other schemes such as automatic vending machines and coupon validating machines,” Kotian said.
The Central Railway said that it has done its job of fitting the machines at railway stations. “We have fitted validators for commuters to use at most of the stations on Central and Harbour line. Maintenance of these validators is the responsibility of Kaizan Automation that is implementing this scheme,” said S.C. Mudgerikar, chief PRO, CR.
Kaizan Automation Ltd said that their customer base is increasing and that they expect it to touch 3 lakh by end of this year. “More than 800 staff carries out maintenance work at railway stations on day-to-day basis. If there is any trouble, it is addressed immediately. I know that there are faults in inspection devices but we have adequate backup. We are rectifying these problems too,” said Paresh Singh, Managing Director, Kaizan Automation Ltd.