Ticket troubles as BEST runs short of printing blocks
MUMBAI : The city’s buses run by Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) may face trouble issuing tickets to passengers in the coming days as they might not be able to print enough of them.
The BEST committee, which governs the body, decided to revert to paper tickets from electronically printed ones a few months ago, has turned down a proposal to purchase printing blocks to make the multi-coloured paper tickets.
The committee, in its Tuesday meeting, went ahead with this decision arguing that the proposal to reintroduce electronic machines to print tickets has not yet been implemented.
Earlier, BEST had stopped using the machines owing to disputes over the vendor’s contract.
“Everywhere, people are moving ahead with electronicallyprinted tickets, but BEST management has cancelled it. Conductors right now are facing a lot of trouble with issuing [blockprinted] tickets,” said Ravi Raja, committee member and leader of the opposition, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
But BEST officials said they have enough printing blocks to last a while.
“Though there will not be an immediate requirement [of printing blocks], we need to purchase more in the future. We will now have to decide further course of action,” said a BEST official, on the condition of anonymity.