Ranchi station is vying for international standards, but cannot fix something as basic as a ticket vending machine.

Both the kiosks, which give out tickets for short distance travel besides platform passes, went out of order at least a fortnight ago and remain unattended, inconveniencing passengers on a rush to board trains.

"I had come to see off my parents leaving for Howrah. As I went to collect platform ticket, both the ticket dispensers showed the message 'machine under maintenance'. When I enquired how much time it will take for the machines to spring back to life, a railway employee sitting at the station master's room said they were out of order," said Pratyush Kumar, a development professional.

Another passenger Aniruddha Kar shared his ordeal.

"Last week, I was to go to Purulia. I thought I will collect a ticket from one of the machines and so reached the station hardly 15 minutes before the train's departure. But on reaching the station, I found the machines to be out of order and had to rush to the counter to buy ticket. It was a horrible experience," Kar said.

The two ticket kiosks were installed and inaugurated at Ranchi railway station this April to ease load on the ticket counters.

The machines dispense unreserved passenger tickets for train travel up to 200km and also platform tickets for those coming to see off their relatives.

Tickets of around 50 railway stations located within a radius of 200km like Namkum, Muri, Bokaro, Ramgarh and Barkakana are available through the ticket dispensers.

A railway employee pointed out that the kiosks had easy-to-understand graphic images for users to operate the touchscreen machines on their own.

Before April, there used to be long queues in front of the seven ticket counters, which thinned with the start of the ticket vending machines. But now, the pressure is back on the counters.

"Even people, who had never used ATMs, could use the ticket dispensers. The machines had a good number of takers. More interestingly, people were buying platform tickets, which boosted railway revenue," said a rail employee.

Asked whether information regarding the non-functioning machines had been passed on to the higher authorities, none at the station could say anything concrete.

Niraj Kumar, senior divisional commercial manager, said, "Thanks for bringing the glitch to my notice. I was not aware of it. Maintenance of the machines is the immediate need of the hour."

He further informed that a month ago, someone had damaged the touch screens of the kiosks. "Though the problem was fixed then, it could be that the machines are not functioning because of that tampering," he added.

How has the defunct machines inconvenienced you? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com