TSRTC passengers to get info of buses on their phones soon

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) is coming up with an initiative of linking buses with a global positioning system (GPS) to let passengers know the exact timing of bus arrival.

The TSRTC has been facing stiff competition from the app-based taxi aggregators, who have the advantage of informing the passengers on the estimated time of arrival and other details.

There has been a demand from the passengers for having a similar facility for the RTC buses. In order to meet this requirement, the TSRTC is now focusing on providing the information to the passengers in advance so that they can plan the journey accordingly.

According to the officials, to begin with, the Corporation had initiated the GPS based system on the airport-bound route. The system is being tested and there have been some technical issues in the return journey from the airport.

"The issue would be sorted out soon and passengers can get the information of the bus through a mobile phone. The exercise of providing information to the passengers is going on and soon the passengers can have the experience," said the TSRTC MD VC Sajjanar during a recent press conference.

This is not the first time the Corporation is planning to have the GPS-based bus tracking system. The TSRTC had started an ambitious process of providing information to the passengers about the coming stations/bus stops through speakers and display boards inside the buses. The idea was to provide the passengers with information like exact timing of the bus arriving at a particular station and the actual position of moving bus through SMS with the help of GPS technology called the Vehicle Tracking and Passenger Information System (VT&PIS).

Earlier, the Corporation wanted to introduce GPS technology in about 3,500 buses in the initial phase and later extend it to all the buses. However, due to lack of supervision the routes 115 (Koti- Uppal), 115BV, 115C, 115ZP, 113K/L and 113 M/W were selected for the pilot project, but the project did not take off.

"Earlier, announcements about next bus stop and other information used to come through the speakers, but now this was not working and the display boards too are not showing the related information," said Shiva, a conductor of a bus.