Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) has announced 20,000 more single-journey Metrorail tickets will arrive in December this year.
“The process will begin on December 16”, additional project director for MRT line 6 Md Zakaria said, adding: “It [cards] will be available by the end of the month. Then, the process of bringing another 30,000 tickets will begin on December 28.”
He expected that this will end the card crisis by next month.
According to DMTCL sources, when the metro rail was launched, 268,441 single-journey cards were issued at the stations. But after a year and 9 months, in October, it was reported that more than 200,000 single-journey cards had been lost as passengers had taken many cards with them, and some cards had become damaged and unusable.
At that time, the company requested the passengers to return the cards they had taken. A box was also provided at each metro rail station for this purpose.
In total, the number of cards dropped to 40,000 in October. Although at that time, more than 100,000 passengers were traveling on the metro rail on an average every day. Hence, the card crisis became more visible.
Later, to deal with the crisis, DMTCL took the initiative to collect new single journey cards. In the new initiative, 4 lakh new cards were ordered from Japan. Of these, the first 20,000 cards arrived in the country last November.
Md Zakaria said: “In the morning, most of the passengers go to Motijheel-Secratariat. As a result, all the tickets are going in that direction.”
If 200 people go from one side, and only 100 people return from there, there an imbalance in the single-journey cards occur.
He said: “Due to the imbalance, there is a scramble for tickets from 11 am to 12 pm.”
Translated by bd-Pratidin English/ Afsar Munna
