To stop ticket black marketing in the railway sector, from now on passengers will not be allowed to travel on trains using tickets that are confirmed with another person’s National Identity Card (NID).
Passengers traveling with tickets of others will be identified as non ticket passengers and hence have to face a penalty. And their fine will be collected instantly through a POS machine that is being newly added to trains.
In this regard, Bangladesh Railways is going to include three services in the ticketing system with the aim of facilitating the collection of fares including fines from non ticket travelers. This new system will be effective from March 1.
These include ticketing of inter-city trains of railways through national identity card verification, introduction of POS (point of sales) machines in ticket checking systems and online refund of tickets purchased online.
Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan on Wednesday after a seminar at the Railway Bhaban said that Bangladesh Railway has brought some changes in the ticketing system as a part of the process of forming ‘Smart Bangladesh’ with the slogan ‘Ticket Jar, Vromon Tar’.
Nurul Islam Sujan said, “Bangladesh Railway has made it mandatory for every passenger to verify the national identity card number or birth certificate and complete the registration process before purchasing the ticket of the inter-city train to ensure that the ticket belongs to the traveler. Passengers purchasing tickets through counter, online and mobile app can easily complete the registration in the ticketing system of Bangladesh Railway anytime through online or mobile SMS.”
Regarding the use of POS machines in trains, Railway Minister Nurul Islam Sujan said, initially this program will be started with 100 POS machines. Through this, it will be possible to issue tickets to a passenger by paying cash online or offline in the fastest time regardless of time and place. TTE or mobile railway ticket examiner through a pos machine can check whether ticket is handed over or ticketless passenger and take action as per rules at the earliest. The passenger will pay the ticket fare through cash or digital payment.”
He said POS machines have an app installed which will be connected to the main database of the railway ticketing system. As a result, tickets issued online and at the counter can be verified through the machine. At the same time tickets for any route can be given very easily.
The POS machine will be connected to the ticketing system in real time so that when a ticket is issued, it will be instantly updated in the system’s main database. As a result any report related to train tickets can be downloaded and monitored by TTE or mobile ticket checkers in real time.”
About the benefits of Point of Sales (POS) machines, Bangladesh Railways informs that genuine or fake tickets can be checked very easily through POS machines. It will be possible to issue tickets to ticketless passengers at the fastest possible time through the POS machine on account of fines. Through this machine, TTE and related parties can quickly prepare accounts with ticket sale statements from the admin panel.
Through the use of POS machines, it will be possible to ensure transparency of ticketless passengers, fines and fare calculations. Having GPS in POS machines will ensure the efficiency and accountability of TTEs or related parties. Besides, according to the future plan of Bangladesh Railway, the ticket can be paid easily through online transactions through POS machines.