Passengers’ cup of woes re-filled by smart cards

Passengers boarding from Bandra east railway station are making a fool of themselves trying to refill their smart cards. Despite the cards being introduced in October last year after the coupon validating system fell flat as the machines stopped working, the railway authorities are yet to install a refilling console at the eastern booking office on the railway foot-over bridge (FOB) at Bandra station.

This has come to mean roaring business for the unscrupulous ticket checking (TC) staff at the station, who detain passengers for ticketless travel when they go over to the western side to refill their cards.

Despite the popularity of these cards, only one console has been installed at each station. Shyamsunder Gupta, chief PRO, western railway, confirmed: “At most stations, we have installed only one console.

Even at Churchgate, we have a single one.” At Bandra, the lack of an alternate FOB is turning the inconvenience into a crisis. At the FOB ticket counter on the eastern side, one finds a pamphlet informing passengers that the card can be refilled only at Window 3 in the west.

However, when they alight from the bridge on the western side, they often run into in a TC who insists the passenger was travelling without a ticket and thus liable to pay a fine of Rs250 plus ticket fare. Left with little choice, most bail out by bribing them.

D Roy, divisional commercial manager, Mumbai division, said: “We are aware of the difficulties at the Bandra eastside booking office but are helpless as we do not have an extra console. The console is provided by the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS). We will receive a new console only in June.” Alok Chaturvedi, chief manager, CRIS, which is responsible for supplying the consoles, was unavailable for comment.