Streamline online booking bus travel, writes activist to transport secy

CHENNAI: Disability rights activist S Namburajan has written to the Transport Department Secretary over the ordeal faced in travelling from Erode to Madurai after booking a ticket through the TNSTC online site.

In his complaint, he said that his ordeal only shows that the government is implementing the online booking process without keeping in the loop the transport corporation staff, including drivers and conductors.

He said that he had booked a ticket on the TNSTC Kumbakonam bus from Erode to Madurai’s Mattuthavani bus stand to board the bus at 3.30 pm on May 2 paying Rs 194.

“When I tried to board the bus at Erode around 3.15 pm showing the SMS, the bus driver responded saying that there was no reservation in the bus,” Namburajan said.

“I asked an officer dressed as a timekeeper who came near the bus shortly. He also said, “There is no reservation in this bus and do you have the challan slip for the ticket?” he asked. When I told them that they only get a message on online booking, they said, if you show something like this and ask for a seat, how we will give, he said irresponsibly,” the activist noted.

Namburajan said that when he showed the screenshot of the bus ticket, he checked the route number and admitted that the ticket was for the bus. “He took a photo of my screenshot with his cell phone and asked me to sit on the seat. When I searched for the seat number, there were no seat numbers on the bus. I sat on an empty seat. A separate ticket for Rs 165 was given by the conductor,” he said. When asked whether the bus would go to Madurai’s Mattuthavani bus stand, the conductor said that the bus would go upto Arapalayam bus stand only.

“I request the additional chief secretary of the Transport Department to take appropriate measures so that this problem that I faced does not happen to others,” he requested.

When I tried to board the bus at Erode around 3.15 pm showing the SMS, the bus driver responded saying that there was no reservation in the bus... A separate ticket for Rs 165 was given by the conductor

—S Namburajan, Disability rights activist