Only 35 TCs for 2.5 lakh commuters feeding ticketless travel on Thane Municipal Transport

THANE: The daily passenger volume of the Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) is around 2.5 lakh, but there are just 35 Ticket Checkers (TCs) to cross check the tickets purchased by the passengers. As the number of TCs working across the TMT is less, they have failed to curb ticketless travel onboard its buses. The fine amount recovered over the last four years reveal that there was a jump in money collected from ticketless travelers in 2010-12, whereas there was a slump in the following years.Figures of daily passengers roughly translates that there is just one checker for every 7,142 passengers leading to an overworked machinery that is reportedly leading to less checking and recovery of fines over the years. Activists allege that during peak hours when the buses are packed beyond capacity, the conductor is hardly in a position to reach all passengers and many errant commuters, who travel short distance take advantage of this and travel ticketless. Some who want to purchase tickets say they cannot as the conductors often take time covering the entire stretch of the running bus. Activists suggest that strengthening the ticket checking staff can atleast ensure they are deputed at certain spots and prove to be a deterrent for those commuters who exploit this situation.
Activist Chandrahas Tawde claims there is a sizeable number of passenger that travels ticketless not out of choice, but due to compulsion. “Many times the conductors are unable to reach the commuters at the other end of the bus due to heavy rush. Short distance commuters cannot wait for purchasing tickets as they might miss alighting at their stops. An audit of the complete scenarios of this commercial department must be done at the earliest,” he says.
A TMT official requesting anonymity confirmed the situation that the TCs were overworked and inadequate to cater to the huge area that the transport body covers. “We will look into the issue and ensure no one travels ticketless,” promised the official.