Arrival, departure to soon be available at bus stops, on apps

CHENNAI: In an effort to make public transport convenient and hence attractive for more number of people, the Transport Department has planned to implement a modern Passenger Information System (PIS) that would provide the estimated time of arrival and departure of buses at stops and real-time locations of the buses through mobile apps.

The Institute of Road Transport has invited bids for the procurement of design, development, supply, implementation, integration, operations and maintenance of PIS, telematics and vehicle planning, scheduling and dispatch system for seven State Transport Undertakings (STUs), including Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), and Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) Coimbatore and Madurai.

“The primary purpose of PIS is to inform passengers of bus arrival and departure times as per direction of travel. It utilises the information from automatic vehicle location system to display estimated time of arrival and departure to commuters, and further use the data for journey planning applications through dedicated mobile applications for commuters,” said the bid document.

All bus terminals and stops would have display units providing real-time transit information on bus routes, time of arrival and departure.

Sumana Narayanan, senior researcher, Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group, said the passenger information system is a much-required one. “Displaying the estimated time of arrival of buses would be helpful to the passengers. They should also provide announcements in both Tamil and English for the passengers on bus arrival as well,” she added.

Former urban engineering professor of Anna University KP Subramanian said the addition of new buses and providing information on bus locations would improve patronage. “To combat climate change by reducing the usage of the private vehicles, the government should take steps to implement the fare integration of public transport systems through CUMTA. It is the need of the hour,” he opined.

The seven STUs, including TNSTC Villupuram, Kumbakonam, Tirunelveli and Salem, have received financial backing from the Tamil Nadu Transport Development Fund Corporation, which has received funds from Germany-based KfW Development Bank towards the cost of the project named “Climate Friendly Modernisation of Bus Services in Major Cities of Tamil Nadu.” As part of the modernisation project, the seven STUs would get 2,213 new diesel buses and 500 electric buses.