Over 3,000 BEST smart cards found defective

At least 3,000 Radio Frequency Based Identity smart cards issued by the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport undertaking since June are defective,said BEST general manager O P Gupta.

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At least 3,000 Radio Frequency Based Identity (RF-ID) smart cards issued by the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking since June are defective,said BEST general manager O P Gupta.

The transport authority had declared on June 1 that it will no longer issue the Rs-40 daily bus pass to those who do not posses the smart card. This was a move to curb revenue losses caused by multiple passengers using one identity card. However,the authority did not expect a sudden surge in demand for the cards. It seems that people are not buying the bus pass but are buying the smart card, said Gupta.

To meet the unprecedented demand for smart cards,the authority had outsourced part of the task of meeting the supply to multiple vendors,said a senior BEST official. We are facing a problem with one vendor as all 3,000 cards supplied by them are defective, said Gupta. The undertaking has now begun issuing fresh cards and intends to rectify the problem within a month.

Over the past 20 days,the transport authority has collected close to Rs 1 lakh from passengers registering for the RF-ID card,which is priced at Rs 20. In May,earnings from the Rs 40 daily bus pass have been pegged at around Rs 10,000 daily.

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