Kochi: Bus punching stations turn defunct

Kochi: The digital bus punching centres, which were set up over a decade ago to rein in the race of private buses on city roads, are  now dysfunctional at almost all the points in the city. The metro works that started in 2013 seemed to have sounded the death-knell of these centres.

Mr M.B. Sathyan, president of All-Kerala Private Bus Operators’ Federation,  said that  the  centres were working properly at the beginning, but later the buses skipped regular punching even before the metro works started because there was no official authority to take responsibility for the smooth working of the centres.

According to the bus operators, the centres were operated manually by the police in the initial stages and later in 2008  there was a proposal to implement the digital punching system at the  centres.  City buses were given digital cards which have to be swiped at  the centres which will register the time automatically.

There were eight punching stations at Ernakulam south, Ravipuram, Menaka junction, Marine Drive, Kaloor junction, Jawahrlal Nehru Stadium  and two at Kalamassery, which have now become non-operational. “They  will become functional only if the police take  action by deploying one official at each centre,” Mr. Sathyan told DC.“The punching centres stopped working when the metro works began. It was difficult for the buses to reach on time because of the  congestion that the metro works caused,” said assistant commissioner, traffic west, M.A. Nazeer.

The formation of bus societies as per KMRL’s proposal to pool  the collection from the buses and share it equally among members of each society was also another reason behind the gradual decline of punching centres.

"With the metro becoming operational from Aluva to Maharaja's, the share of commuters of private buses declined which also led to the weakening of the  race among private buses. In fact,  the absence of punching stations went unnoticed because of a decline in the  race," said a commuter.