i-Smart cards, which had received quick acceptance from i-bus commuters, are now suffering because of its faltering services. Further non-assisting and careless attitude of personnel leads to many commuters breaking the rules and long queues.
Commuters are signing in with their i-smart card from a station, checking their balance and confirmation of opening doors with green light.
However, when they get out at another station, the reading software does not accept their card and flashed ‘Invalid Ticket’. Waiting desperately in long queues due to ‘out of service’ reading machines, commuters are forced to wait for an assisting personnel to help them.
However, most assisting personnel are too ignorant of commuters’ problem and refuse to explain the problem. Instead of explaining and accepting the fault, the assisting personnel are often rude and non-complaint with the promised service.
Such incidents though claimed as rare by AiCTSL (Atal Indore City Transport Service Limited) are becoming common among 60k commuters.
Additionally, even some machines are ‘out of service’ for three days now. “There is penalty for every hour that a reader machine is down,” said CEO of AiCTSL Sandeep Soni.
However, these machines are out of service due to software issues as well, as shared by AiCTSL team. Where many car owners have switched to i-bus for reducing their bio-footprint and quicker transport, they are frustrated by these faltering delays now.
One such commuter Manish Giridhari said, “I chose i-bus because I truly care about the environment, but card errors and long queues at reading machine is becoming a problem now.”
Another commuter Yashi Sachdev shared her experience at Satya Sai square, where her card was stuck. “If that was not enough, the other reading machine was out of service,” she added.
An engineering student travelling to his class, Gaurav Roy said, “A lot of boys actually jump through the gates and enjoy a free ride, I don’t think that is fair and allowing such activities will motivate more free riders to take the bus.”
One such incident was reported to AiCTSL and further tracked down by Soni at Satya Sai square on Saturday. “We are taking action against the security personnel, because it is not acceptable to have anyone jump the gates,” Soni said.
Another complaint reported by homemaker Ruchi Bajaj is crawling children and even some kids under the gates for free rides. “Even I saw a woman with four children commuting in i-bus, at the station, all the kids crawled under the gates,” she said.