Slow tendering is speed breaker for MTC mobile app

The authorities claim they are uncertain when the application will be rolled out for public use.

The Greater Chennai Corporation completed the geocoding of 3,485 bus shelters in the city and its suburbs early this year. The Institute of Road Transport (IRT) along with the State Transport Undertakings (STUs) floated a tender in September, inviting the bids to develop the mobile application in order to enhance the user experience.

The State Transport Undertakings (STUs) had already completed the geo-coding of 1.50 lakh bus shelters across the State. Nearly, 22,000 buses provide services to commuters at these stops.

This application is expected to help the Transport Department to see the number of downloads, user requests of routes, specific routes that have the highest request, origin-destination pairs, geo-map of all the requests in the dashboard. The data feed will be made available to the Transport Department in the standardised General Transit Feed Specifications (GTFS).

The move is expected to help the various transport departments and the State Transport Corporations to rationalise routes and align the services catering to the demand of commuters.

Managing Director of MTC, Anbu Abraham, said, “The process has hit a roadblock after an interim stay was received at the Madurai High Court. Only after vacating the stay, the process will be carried forward. Originally, it was expected that the mobile application will be ready within five months of floating the tender.”