PRTC ticketing process goes hi-tech, more transparent

The Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) has decided to issue bus tickets through on-line machines, which would result in the information of the ticket issued by the bus conductor automatically reaching the concerned depot and head office, Punjab Transport Minister Aruna Chaudhary said today.

In the first phase, the scheme will be initiated at the Patiala Bus Depot, as a pilot project, by July 15 and afterwards it will be launched at other depots also, Chaudhary said.

Presently tickets are issued in the PRTC buses through off-line machines whose record is uploaded at the office by attaching the machine to the computer after the route gets completed, the minister said.

"The new initiative would see on-line ticket machines available at the bus depots. The moment any ticket is issued the entire information pertaining to it would be uploaded directly onto the server of the concerned depot as well as that of the head office," she said in an official release here.

This would result in officers at the depot and the head office being fully aware of the record of the tickets being issued besides making it easier for the checking staff to check the bus, she added.

This mechanism would also help bring in more transparency and curb any corrupt practices, she said.

Chaudhary said that as a pilot project, this initiative would commence at the Patiala Bus Depot where 300 on-line machines would be provided to the depot as well as to the bus conductors.