BEST to study usage of single ticketing system

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) committee on Thursday gave its final approval to send its senior official to visit foreign countries where Integrated Ticketing System (ITS) are operational. This comes after Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) sent a proposal to the management of BEST to depute its official for a technical visit to understand the importance of single ticket system.

The proposal states that a senior official from BEST is required to visit places like London, Manchester and Dubai in order to know the feasibility of bringing the ITS in the transport division of BEST. The management of BEST has permitted the General Manager of BEST Surendrakumar Bagde to visit these places from September 16 to September 23.

The ITS is a single ticket system which would integrate all the existing transport bodies of Mumbai. “The MMRDA has organised a study tour in order to understand the technical aspect of single ticket system which are used by the transport divisions at these places. It is important to know the feasibility of this system before we could use it,” said Anil Kokil, Chairman of BEST.

The senior officials from all transport bodies including central railways, western railways and Mumbai metro are also requested to visit these places on the same date.

Once the single ticketing system is operational, it would help in bringing easy access to all the existing transport divisions in the city. “It is an effort to promote cashless transactions in the city. This system would allow the commuter to use a common smart card which could be used to travel in local trains, BEST buses and metro trains,” added the official.