MTC implements mass pis in Chennai

Niranjana Ramesh, Chennai
The Economic Times
Chennai would soon be the first city to get a mass passenger information system, in its public transport systems, in the country. The state run passenger transport buses in the city are being fitted with GPS (global positioning systems) that will enable passengers to track buses on their mobile phones, bus stops and on the Internet.

"That is just the beginning. What is envisioned is a full fledged modern passenger information system," said Ashok Leyland (ALL) Telematics business unit president Jayaram Krishnan. The company supplies buses to the fleet of Metropolitan transport corporation (MTC), the PSU which runs city transport buses in Chennai. "This includes sensors at the entry and exit door steps, automatic ticketing, audio and video announcement systems at bus stops, driver alarms on vital engine parameters and recording of engine diagnostics for future reference."

The main difference between this project and other GPS projects is that others are used for tracking by fleet owners, while this one would be used passenger information. Bangalore metropolitan transport corporation (BMTC) had implemented a GPS-based passenger information system in its air-conditioned Volvo buses two years back. But, Chennai will be the first city to implement it in mass transport.

ALL’s Telematics unit, which was formed late in 2006, has been the program manager for this project, whose technical aspects were being worked on by Ohm Infotech, Siemens and Lattice Bridge Information Systems. The project was implemented on a pilot of 100 city buses initially. Presently, 600 buses are connected in this system, with LED displays for tracking them at 51 bus stops in the city.