Drivers of 207 Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) buses will now think twice before skipping a bus stand or driving rashly. From Monday, a remote eye will monitor the performance of these buses from the Yelahanka depot that have been fixed with GPS devices.
Monitored from the control room in Shanthinagar TTMC, a screen tracks buses on a city map. A team of 20 BMTC employees work round-the-clock and communicate directly with the driver, who can also speak to staff in the control room. The aim is to ensure buses follow the given route, not skip bus stands, and maintain speed limits.
Yelahanka’s “very bad performance” made it a candidate for this pilot project. It could get no handholding as it was located far away from the head office and presented the most challenging environment.
Erring drivers are first warned verbally. If they continue erring, their routes are changed. Action is taken only when there is evidence. However, drivers are not suspended.
Kumar Pushkar, Director (IT), BMTC, said, “The objective is not to punish, but reform them. Our drivers are not machines.”
The screen also throws up data such as the bus number, its GPS device number, its speed, schedule number and the depot from where it originates. It refreshes the status of the buses every 10 seconds.
On Monday, he said, panic buttons were pressed (by error) thrice in the control room, 594 cases of speeding (buses moving at above 50 km/hr) and 49 cases of ‘harsh’ braking, which implied rash driving.
Mr. Pushkar said September is “crucial" to BMTC as it is testing the Intelligent Transport Solution (ITS) and scale it up in October.
The GPS mapping, provided by Trimax Infrastructure Ltd, is part of the ITS, which will cover the entire BMTC by the first week of December. BMTC is paying Rs. 69.16 crore in 60 equal instalments of Rs, 1.16 crore for the ITS.
