Know the arrival of BMTC buses in your route

Know the arrival of BMTC buses in your route
The Hindu

Electronic display boards at bus stops to give information

# Facility to be initially offered on bus stops along Volvo routes
# The display unit will mention arrival timing of the buses enroute

BANGALORE: People travelling by Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) buses will get real-time information about arrival of buses at stops enroute by January-end.

The corporation has placed orders for supply and operation of electronic display boards for passenger information system (PIS) with a Bangalore-based information technology firm on a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis. The supply would begin by month-end, according to a senior BMTC official.

The facility will initially be offered on 80 bus stops along the five Volvo routes — Kempe Gowda Bus Station (KBS) to Kadugodi, KBS to Electronics City, KBS to JP Nagar 6th Phase, Shivajinagar to ITPL and Central Silk Board to Hebbal. The display, however, is not limited to Volvo buses, but covers other buses on the route.

Synchronised by GPRS, PIS is supported by Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographical Information System (GIS). GPS tracks the movement of buses with the help of GIS-enabled digitally mapped road network of the city. Thus, the GPRS control room of the service provider would be able to record and forecast the minute-to-minute update of movement of buses.

Over 1,000 BMTC buses, including all the 50 Volvo buses are GPS-enabled. The corporation will soon introduce GPS on 1,500 more buses and eventually bring all its 4,000-odd buses under GPS, the official said. Eventually, PIS would be offered at all bus stops within a few months.

The display unit, to be placed at a noticeable place in the bus shelter, would digitally display arrival timing of the buses enroute. The unit would be connected to the control room through GPRS. The corporation would provide the route map, timetable, number of buses on a particular route and other required details to the service provider.

Info on SMS

The PIS is not confined to bus shelters enroute. In the days to come, a commuter can get information about arrival of the bus of his choice on his mobile phone, the official said. The corporation and the selected service provider are working on the modalities of bus arrival info through SMS and the new system will be in place soon.

With this, the officer said, the commuter need not wait for long hours at bus stops. Apart from reducing congestion of private vehicles on roads (due to specific information on arrival of buses), the PIS would increase the utilisation of public transport due to reliable information, the officer added.