Ticket counters at govt bus stations do not have digital payment facilities in Ggn

GURUGRAM: Already troubled with the serious cash crunch, commuters in Gurugram have another headache to bear. Ticket counters at government bus stations in the Millennium City, connecting it with the rest of Haryana with the road network, has no facility for digital payment.

The problem of commuters and passengers can be assessed with the fact that thousands of workers and office-goers come for jobs in the city from various parts of Gurugram and also from other districts of Haryana. They are already facing cash crunch to meet their daily requirements and now, the government machinery has also emerged as the consumer of the little cash they have available to them after a long struggle to queue up in front of banks and ATMS.

Even though the transaction of old Rs 500 notes is still allowed till December 15, transport officials and travellers mention that there is a challenge of insufficient cash and the lack of monetary change caused due to demonetisation.

In admitting that there is a lot of dependence on cash presently at Gurugram bus station, S P Parmar, Deputy Transport Controller (Traffic), Haryana government said: “We are making a transition from cash transition to a cashless system. In this process, there are challenges and difficulties which will be faced.”

Parmar acknowledged that there are limited digital payment facilities at Gurugram bus stand and the dependence on cash is causing difficulties to the travellers but showed his helplessness. “Within a week or two we plan to bring in about 20 Point of Sale (POS) machines at the bus stands,” he added.

He also informed about the proposal of the Haryana government to introduce electronic ticketing system which may take about two-three months.

In mentioning that even after introduction, it will take some time for the travellers and officials to get used to doing transactions digitally, Jai Prakash Yadav, a transport official at the city bus stand highlighted: “There is a lot of dependence on cash by the travelers and the officials. Presently, only the Volvo bus service has facility of cashless transactions on Gurugram to Chandigarh route. The bus conductors also require training to operate the new system.”

These plans are only at a proposal stage and will take time to materialise. Till then it’s suffering all the way for the common man.