Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) is busy doing groundwork for rolling out its proposed integrated transportation plans even as the agency waits for the State government to pass the Unified Metropolitan Transportation Authority (UMTA - Kochi) Bill, which will give it the legal teeth to enforce them.
After taking initiative to bring around 1,000 buses within the limits of the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) and Goshree Islands Development Authority (GIDA) under seven separate entities, six limited liability partnership companies, and a society, efforts are now on to work out a timetable for buses based on a comprehensive mobility plan.
Frequent interactions are held to fine-tune the timetable drawn up based on a study by the Urban Mass Transit Company (UMTC), a leading urban mobility consultant, after considering potential route rationalisation needed to streamline bus operations for a seamless and integrated multi-modal transportation network around the Kochi metro.
However, the timetable may require a revision, as the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) is in the process of revisiting the timing allocated to bus services.
This may bring the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), which has been roped in by the MVD for the purpose, into the mix, as UMTC may have to draw on the work of C-DAC.
As the proposed integrated mobility plan involves a rejig of the existing bus services, route rationalisation, and re-routing based on a slew of factors ranging from passenger demand to timing of services will become imperative.
Once the timetable is finalised based on route rationalisation and revised timings, work may begin on offering journey planners both over smartphones and through touchscreen kiosks at bus shelters.
Journey planners help the public plan their journey based on advance information about various modes of transport.
The ultimate objective is to give a new lease of life to public transport, the share of which in the city has been dwindling by 3% with each passing year. The share of public transport in Kochi stood at 49% in 2015, and going by the trend, it would have dropped even low by now, sources said.
