The much-publicised ticket vending machines installed at various Metro stations by DMRC for the convenience of commuters a year ago have proved to be a flop show. Nearly half of them don’t work and during peak hours, there are long queues in evidence.

Three ticket vending machines have been installed at Rajiv Chowk Metro Station, but none of them were found functioning. Taking cognisance of this, the Ministry of Urban Development has shot off a letter to DMRC to fix them.

“Although we have intimated DMRC authorities in January, they are still unable to repair the fault,” a senior official of the Ministry said.

Ticket vending machines at Dilshad Garden too don’t function. At present, 60 machines are installed at 32 Metro stations on line 1 including Dilshad Garden, Jhilmil, Shahdara, Welcome, Seelampur, Shastri Park, Tis Hazari, Shastri Nagar, Netaji Subhash Place, Kohat Enclave, Pitampura, Rohini East, Rohini West, Rithala.

On line 2, Jahangirpuri, Adarsh Nagar, Azadpur, GTB Nagar, Vishwavidyalaya, Kashmere Gate, Chandni Chowk, Chawri Bazar, New Delhi, Rajiv Chowk, INA, AIIMS, Hauz Khas, Malviya Nagar, Saket, Sikanderpur, MG Road and IFFCO Chowk have also ticket Metro station. Half of them are not in working condition. 

A DMRC spokesperson, however, said that they will look into the matter and all machines will be repaired soon. He also said there is a plan to install about 90 more machines at 51 other Metro stations on the lines 2,3,4,5 and 6. The move to install ticket vending machine was taken in a bid to reduce pressure on the manual ticketing system. Commuters, who have credit cards, will also be able to recharge their ‘Metro Smart Card’ through the ticket

vending machine.