In order to make travel easier and save the bus commuters from standing in the long queues, the Delhi Transport department (DTC) has introduced online bus facility last year but the digitisation of online bus passes has failed to attract the pass seekers who still prefer the manual passes. A report by DTC officials points out that the DTC has issued a total of 1011 online passes till April, while approximately about eight lakh passes are issued annually through the manual process.
While implementing the scheme, the transport department estimated the issuance of about 200 passes online per day but the data points that the highest number of passes issued in a month is 221.
It may be noted that the Delhi Government had introduced the online bus passes in its bid to make it as part of its door step delivery in October 2018 and in the first phase the facility was made available only for the 'general all route bus users'. The all routes monthly bus passes are made for Rs 1033 are valid in AC, non-AC and cluster buses services and this pass is also valid to travel across the city and National Capital Region (NCR) such as Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Noida. While the cost of all route non-ac bus pass is available for Rs 833.
In October, the DTC issued 36 passes. While, in November about 143 people got their passes made through online mode and in December 142 passes issued. Though according to the data, the distribution of online passes is increasing but in very minimal numbers. Further, in January, DTC issued 144 while it increased in February and March i.e, 151 and 174. The revenue collected through the online bus passes mode is Rs 12.80 lakh.
When asked, a senior transport official on condition of anonymity said that the number of passes issued through online mode is increasing but it will take time to attract a large number of people."It is obvious from the number of passes issued that the people across the city are aware about such facility. But one of the main reasons behind the less numbers of attractions is also that the online process takes time as compared to the manual process. Because through online one will get the passes in seven days whereas in the manual process, the passes are made in one day," said the official.
However, the official added that the number of online bus pass distribution will increase automatically in next two months once the concessional pass issued to the senior citizens and students will be converted to online system alike the general all routes bus pass users.
Currently, the concessional pass has to manually present at their nearest bus depot to get their bus passes made. "The students, senior citizens and other who apply for concessional passes will soon get their bus pass sitting at him as the DTC in its second phase will make the online system accessible for the concessional bus pass users. The DTC is currently working on the modalities to add features that may detect the veracity of the documents uploaded by the students and senior citizens for passes," said the official.
