Metro rail: Commuters suffer as Rapid Pass supply entangled in red tape

Commuters suffer as a ticket crisis, especially of Rapid Pass, hits the Dhaka metro rail service because of bureaucratic entanglement. As a result, many passengers are forced to stand in long queues for hours to collect single journey tickets.

Currently, passengers can avail three types of passes to travel in metro rail. Two of these are permanent cards: Rapid Pass and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT Pass).

According to Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), which operates metro rail services, more than 400,000 passengers currently commute by metro rail, with 60 per cent of them using Rapid Pass and MRT Pass. The remaining passengers use single journey tickets.

However, the metro rail authorities now have a small number of Rapid Passes and MRT Passes in their stocks. Because of this, many of the passengers who want to purchase the cards return empty-handed.

The demand for the permanent cards is about 1,000-1,500 per day. The Rapid Pass and MRT Pass offer a discount of 10 per cent on fares, as well as causing less hassles.

Sources said the supply of metro rail cards has now been entangled in bureaucratic complexities. The DTMCL itself cannot collect the Rapid Pass.

According to sources at the DMTCL, Japanese Nippon Signal supplied 310,000 single journey cards and 728,000 MRT cards for the metro rail at the beginning. Almost all of the MRT Passes have been sold. Meanwhile, the DMTCL could purchase no new cards. So, they stopped selling it and kept some cards in order to replace the lost or damaged cards.

MRT Pass is exclusively used to avail metro rail services while Rapid Pass, which is currently used for travelling by metro rail, will be used for all modes of transports in Dhaka.

Another government agency, Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA), is responsible for collecting Rapid Pass, but the agency’s capacity raised questions. Both DMTCL and DTCA run under the road transport ministry.

Robiul Alam works at a private firm in Motijheel. On Saturday afternoon, he failed to purchase a permanent card for his wife at a Farmgate metro station. Earlier, he was told from the counter that cards are likely to arrive at the end of April.

He said his wife now uses single journey tickets to travel in metro rail, but she needs to stand in long queues to collect tickets.

The DTCA introduced Rapid Pass in 2015 with the slogan “One Card for All Transport” to pay fares for public and private transportation on roadways, railways and waterways.

DTCA has been collecting Rapid Passes through contractors and supplying those to the DMTCL for the past six months. As contractors could not supply properly, the metro rail authorities are not getting the cards as per the demands.

DTCA sources said the agency awarded Prime Power Solution with the responsibility to supply 250,000 Rapid Passes. The private company imported those from Indonesia and is set to complete the delivery within May.

The DTCA has received 118,000 Rapid Passes so far in phases. As a result, passengers cannot avail Rapid Passes as per their demands.

DTCA additional executive director (additional secretary) Md Motasim Billah, who oversees the procurement of cards, declined to comment saying he is not authorised to speak to media and the agency’s ahead would talk to media.

DTCA executive director Neelima Akhter could not be reached over mobile phone.

When contacted, Road Transport and Highways Division Senior Secretary Md Ehsanul Haque told Prothom Alo the DTCA was given instruction to procure cards, but he was not aware of the card crisis and he would look into the matter and take necessary steps.

Metro rails have been operating on the Motijheel-Uttara route in Dhaka since the service opened in December 2022. The service became popular despite being more expensive than bus fares.

Yet, passengers often stand in queues defying hassles to purchase tickets. Sayeda Sultana, a resident from the capital’s Mirpur, told Prothom Alo she could not find her previous card. So she went to a metro station on Thursday to get a new one, but failed. 

“Metro rail was built speeding billions of taka from public funds to alleviate miseries, but a simple task over purchasing tickets is causing hassles, and that is very saddening,” she lamented.

* This report appeared in the online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Hasanul Banna