Page 23 - TT mag April 2024 Digital Edition

PUBLIC TRANSPORT
us operation is not
just about ferrying
passengers from
point to point but
also about being
Befficient, adhering
to schedules, being predictable
about the journey and giving
comfort to commuters, according
to Atul Kumar, General Manager
- Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal
Transit System Limited. This is not
an easy task in major cities where
the population is large, traffic
heterogenous and the width of
roads, inadequate.
From an operational perspective,
schedule, speed, bunching and
point-of-interest need to be
considered, he said. The bus
journey begins when it leaves the
depot. Its location is tracked and
there is supervision to ensure the
bus is running on a designated
route without getting diverted, is
driven at a permissible speed and
headway maintained between
buses to ensure there is no bunching
at the point-of-interest, also known
as the bus-stop. Commuters can
board and disembark from the bus
only at the point-of-interest. The
POIs are geo-fenced within a 15-30
metre radius where the bus slows
down to a stop and then picks up BUS OPERATION IS NOT
speed to continue on its journey. A PROFITABLE BUSINESS.
A key aspect of bus operations is IT IS BASICALLY A
ease of commute for passengers. SERVICE TO THE
The Bengaluru Metropolitan
Transport Corporation (BMTC) NATION, IN MY OPINION.
buses operate tailor-made services CURRENTLY, DATA
to suit commuters including those RELATED TO COMMUTER
from the IT community and the
economically weaker sections. TRAVEL IS CONFINED
R Ramachandran (IAS), Managing TO GOVERNMENT
Director – Bengaluru Metropolitan DATABASES. IT MUST
Transport Corporation, said,
“Currently, BMTC is operating BE SHARED AND MADE
5635 schedules, covering OPEN TO THIRD-PARTY
11.49 lakh kms and servicing DEVELOPERS SO THEY
40 lakh passengers daily. Fleet
augmentation, affordable bus CAN CREATE NEW
fares with simple ticket handling, APPLICATIONS.
100% zero-emission vehicles,
bus priority lanes across key – Atul Kumar
corridors in the city, integrated
public transport hubs for effective
physical integration between
urban and rural services, fare and
information integration across
public transport modes through
hardware and software initiatives
like smart cards, mobile apps,
smart tickets and offline initiatives
and integrating Intermediate Public
Transport (IPT) through planning
and infrastructure measures are
required to make bus transport
passenger-friendly.”
While DIMTS develops its own
bus tracking systems, Masstrans,
which started with LEDs in buses
so commuters could read bus
www.trafficinfratech.com / April 2024 / TRAFFICINFRATECH 23