All buses of 30 companies plying Mirpur route in the capital were brought under an e-ticketing system on Sunday.
The newly-set up ticket-distribution arrangement for buses will help end irregularities in fare collection and fix various operational problems, hope bus operators.
Passengers and bus operators said almost all buses operating from Mirpur towards various locations in the city issued tickets through using electronic devices under the new system.
But the devices were kept switched off for some time on the day as a means to hide the income, alleged some passengers.
Afroza, a commuter of the route, said she got e-ticket in the morning while riding a bus named 'Bijoy'. But while going back home in the evening by a bus of 'Shikor', she paid the fare in traditional way.
Onik, helper of a bus, said though they operated the electronic device in the morning, it could not be operated in the evening due to network problem.
Dhaka Bus Transport Owners Association announced to introduce the e-ticketing system in all buses of 30 companies plying the Mirpur route from Sunday
after successful operation of the device in first eight buses on the route from September 22.
In a press conference on Saturday, Khandkar Enayet Ullah, general secretary of the Bangladesh Road Transport Owners Association (BRTOA), claimed that after using the device in the first eight buses, incomes of the bus owners have increased and incidents of realising extra fares by helpers stopped.
Jatri, an IT firm, is providing necessary support to issue, operate and monitor the system under a contract with the bus companies.
The vice president of Jatri told the FE that they have fixed the device in all buses of 30 companies along with necessary supports to ensure smooth operation of the system.
He said as each of the companies runs different numbers of buses, nearly a thousand devices were supplied to them.
Though the BRTOA general secretary at the press conference told about opening a monitoring cell with three hotline numbers, the FE found the numbers either switched off or not responding while filing this report.
The general secretary's personal cell number also remained switched off at that time.
smunima@yahoo.com