Ticket sale revenue rises for city buses after ETM facility launch

Gurugram: The monthly revenue earned by the Gurugram Metropolitan City Bus Limited (GMCBL) from ticket sales on an average has crossed the ₹4-crore mark from the earlier figure that hovered between ₹3

Gurugram: The monthly revenue earned by the Gurugram Metropolitan City Bus Limited (GMCBL) from ticket sales on an average has crossed the ₹4-crore mark from the earlier figure that hovered between ₹3.3 crore to ₹3.5 crore, officials said on Thursday.

Ticket sale revenue rises for city buses after ETM facility launch

Officials added that after GMCBL introduced modified handheld ticketing machines of Paytm, several malpractices have been plugged and revenues are on an uptick.

During a board meeting of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) held in March this year, the agency approved the Android operating-system based Paytm electronic ticketing machines (ETMs) with an aim to launch cashless ticketing system, where a passenger can make transactions through debit/credit cards, UPI and in the near future, with the National Common Mobility Card.

Officials said that the ETMs were launched in August and their introduction has made ticketing more seamless and transparent.

GMCBL officials said that besides a jump in ticketing revenue, the monthly ridership has also increased by at least 50,000 passengers.

The ETMs that run on 4G sim cards and print tickets with details such as date, issuing time, boarding and deboarding point, depot name from where the bus started, conductor code and even bus registration number, while the old ETMs and manual tickets did not have these details.

The new ETMs are helping in curbing malpractices by both conductors and passengers, officials added. Besides, the ETMs have inbuilt cameras for audio-video recording and conductors and passengers have developed a fear of getting monitored if they indulge in malpractices, they said.

GMCBL manager (administration) GC Yadav said that manual ticketing systems have completely been shut after the introduction of the new ETMs.

“Malpractices and irregularities have stopped and revenue collection is up. We have also intensified onboard ticket checking. Autorickshaw fares have increased but our fares are unchanged and it has helped us in increasing ridership”, Yadav said.

Officials said that several passengers preserved used manual tickets earlier and travelled multiple times with the same, but with the introduction of ETMs, the malpractice has ended.

“Conductors also picked up used tickets lying on the bus floor and gave them to a new passenger and pocket the fare. It was a kind of embezzlement,” a senior GMCBL official said, seeking anonymity.

He said that such malpractices were detected only by flying squads during surprise inspections.

Officials said that both passengers and conductors are now aware that they cannot reuse a ticket issued from digital ETMs.

“Plugging these corrupt practices is getting reflected with an increase in monthly revenue from ticket sales and ridership,” he added.

Another senior official said, “Our daily cash collection used to be around ₹10-11 lakh from ticket sales. Now, it regularly touches ₹15 lakh”.

Officials said they had an average monthly earning per kilometre (EPK) of ₹31 till July, when 41 routes were operational across Gurugram and Faridabad and after the introduction of new ETMs, it has crossed ₹41, though routes have come down to 33.

There will be a further increase in revenue from ticket sales and ridership once the old routes become operational, they said.

GMCBL is using 450 Paytm ETMs for and pays ₹339 per machine as monthly rent. Authorities said they are on the verge of launching UPI payment facility for cashless ticket purchase through the ETMs, which would further increase revenue and ridership.

GMCBL presently operates a fleet of 208 buses of which 50 run in Faridabad. This fleet will expand to 258 buses and include electric vehicles next year, officials added.