BMTC goes hi-tech: Digital boards for all buses

BMTC goes hi-tech: Digital boards for all buses
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: City buses will soon have hi-tech digital display boards instead of worn out metal boards. Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will install Light Emitting Diode (LED) boards on all its buses, starting with the Pushpak and Pushpak Plus brands.

Like the existing boards, this moving display will show the route number, starting point and destination. It will also show the names of the intermediate stations. ‘‘The project is in the final stages. We have already called for tenders. Soon, these boards will replace the old ones,’’ BMTC Chief Traffic Manager Dastagir Sherieff told this website’s newspaper.

In the first phase, BMTC will install LED boards on all 220 Pushpaks and 80 Pushpak Plus buses, then move on to black and red board buses. At present, there are nearly 4,000 BMTC buses on city roads, which will increase to 4,500 by October. The air-conditioned Volvo buses, expected to join the fleet by November, will also have these facility.

Trial runs with the new displays have already been conducted on 20 BMTC bus routes in the last few weeks, including those plying from Majestic to JP Nagar VI Phase, KR Market to Shivajinagar, Banashankari to Domlur and Neelasandra to Shivajinagar.

There is also provision to change the information stored on the battery-operated boards. For example, if a bus plying from Majestic to Jayanagar needs to change its route to Domlur, the boards need not be switched. With the touch of a key, the information can be changed.