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Satellites to help streamline bus traffic

Bangalore will be the first to use the 'Vehicle Tracking and Monitoring System' for offline analysis of the fleet of buses operated by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation and some private operators.

T O D A Y

• MTNL carrot • VSNL's new Net offer • Bus tracking system

The public sector Bharat Electronics Limited is executing a project on a pilot basis. The first prototype unit should be ready for evaluation anytime now.

The BMTC has placed an order for the supply of 200 units at Rs 2 million. It has taken a sample of 200 buses plying on different routes of the metropolis for the study.

A compact 'Global Positioning System' based receiver unit has been mounted on the buses to get minute-to-minute information about their positions.

The recorded data can be stored for three days before which it is downloaded into the 'Central Control System' at the BMTC headquarters.

The CCS, in turn, contains a 'Geographical Information Systems' based map of Bangalore city that details roads, bus routes, stops, shelters etc as fixed information.

The dynamic information collected through the bus mounted GPS is then juxtaposed on the GIS data and a number of useful interpretations are generated for the use of the BMTC, explained BEL AGM, Systems, Krishna Gopal.

How does the system help BMTC check discrepancies in the operation of the bus services? Gopal claims that the BEL tracking system will provide information about the bus route, stop violations such as time discipline, bypassing of thin traffic routes and preferring high-density traffic routes (to get more revenue) and unauthorised stops.

The benefits of the system are that it could monitor the route kilometres, mileage covered by the operator on a daily and trip basis.

Finally, it would also help in making monthly bills with automatic deductions due to violations, he said.

The BEL has also submitted a proposal to the Andhra Pradesh State Transport Corporation for a Vehicle Monitoring and Display System based on GPS, according to Commander S Roy Choudhury, AGM, Delhi.

The system would operate on a real-time basis with the GPS unit transmitting the information to the CCS through VHF radio network.

It can give dynamic data and predict which bus is expected to arrive at each bus stop within the next five minutes.

It also proposes to have display advertisements, in between, for revenue generation to the APSRTC.

- Compiled from the Indian media

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