Click to play videoMumbai: Lakhs of Mumbaikars go through an ordeal every day—that of standing in queues and buying tickets for local trains. Now, a machine may make their commute easier.
The Railways are installing automated ticket vending machines (ATVMs) at 300 stations on Mumbai's suburban rail network. Using pre-paid cards worth Rs 100, Rs 200 and Rs 500, commuters can buy train tickets at these machines.
The Railways hopes these machines will make buying tickets easier but commuters are not convinced. Commuters say the machines will eventually break down or get damaged, like the coupon-validating machines.
"What is the use of these machines if they are not working. I would have preferred the machines but they are of no use," said one commuter.
Prannai Prabhakar, Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, admitted that the coupon-validating machines had problems. "We had some problems with the Coupon machines; the company maintaining them just left us," said Prabhakar.
An ATVM this correspondent used gave out a ticket which didn’t mention the time of travel—an invalid ticket according to the law.
Mumbai’s train commuters do like the idea of these machines but say the idea must work.
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