BMTC to collect Rs 11 crore to rev up technology

BMTC to collect Rs 11 crore to rev up technology
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: When you travel in a BMTC bus, you presume you are paying for the diesel and the salary of personnel. But the BMTC reveals 10 paise on each ticket is collected towards technology upgradation.

The BMTC expects to collect Rs 7.66 crore from the sale of tickets, Rs 30 lakh from student passes, Rs 2.09 crore from public passes, Rs 27.69 lakh from dedicated passes for factories and Rs 52.56 lakh from chartered services during 2005-06.

BMTC MD Upendra Tripathy said: “We want to use this fund for technology initiatives like the global positioning system (GPS), which facilitates tracking of our buses. Paying 10 paise may not be an additional burden for a commuter. Our objective is to make BTMC bus services more reliable through these technology initiatives.

“We are planning to introduce an interactive voice response system (IVRS) and a passenger information system (PIS) shortly,” he said.

BMTC has already appointed MobiApps and Arya Omnitech, a subsidiary of Arvind Mills, to implement its IT initiatives.

“It would be easy for the BMTC to avail a tracking summary of buses through the MobiApps m-Track Web based fleet management system. We get 140 accident cases against BMTC buses every year. Some of them are falsely foisted.

“Through the IT initiative, we can save around Rs 2.1 crore that would otherwise be paid as compensation. If we come to know about a bus being involved in a accident, we can be prepared to attend courts and pay compensation,” the managing director said.

He said the BMTC plans to fix an LED (light emitting diode) to each of its buses. “We have put in the LED system in 20 buses on a pilot basis. Each bus needs Rs 18,000 for this, and we have roped in Itramas, a Malaysian company, to implement the LED system,” he said.

BMTC is expected to receive Central assistance of around Rs 2 crore to support its IT initiatives. “The Centre has agreed to look into our proposal. If everything goes well, we will receive the amount for economic feasibility tests of new ideas,” he said.