Computerised bus pass centres

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MAY 2. Buoyed by the success of its first computerised bus pass centre at Scindia House, the Delhi Transport Corporation expanded this facility to six new places in the Capital in April. By this month end another six centres would be opened.

``So far we have covered most parts of South, North and East Delhi. In the next phase we will take up West Delhi. All the 26 computerised bus pass centres would become functional in the next few weeks,'' said the DTC Chairman, Mr. Rakesh Mehta.

The six centres which became operational in April were those at Sarojini Nagar, Central Secretariat, Nehru Place, Hauz Khas, Delhi Gate and Kashmiri Gate. Those to be opened in May are in Delhi University near the Vice-Chancellor's office, Shahdara Terminal, Patparganj, Nand Nagri, Red Fort and Maurice Nagar.

These terminals are being operated and maintained by the public sector Electronic Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) as a DTC franchisee. The ECIL has so far invested Rs. 3.5 crores in the system and as a service charge it has been authorised to charge Rs. 7 for making each pass from ordinary passengers and Rs. 2 from the student community.

``With our computerised centres becoming highly popular, all our centres have now become self-sustainable. People from far off places are coming to the centres to have their passes made,'' Mr. Mehta said. ``We have increased our efficiency and provided better facilities to commuters.''

Each of these computerised centres have been making between 500 to 1,200 passes per day. The commuter now gets the pass it in about two minutes on an average.

According to Mr. Mehta, soon all terminals would be linked so that the data fed into one terminal could be accessed at the any of the other 25 centres. ``The DTC has to be made commuter- friendly. This is part of our attempt,'' he said.

The DTC has also decided to introduce mobile computerised pass centres. Initially this will be for special category of commuters who normally do not stand in queue, but the mobile van would later be stationed at various remote places so as to take the pass centres right to the door-step of the commuters.

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