Bid to provide easy access to information on modes of travel and integrate public transport
Soon, commuters in the city will be able to access a one-stop portal for information on public transport in the city.
The Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) is set to examine a proposal for a portal that will provide commuters information on travel in the Chennai Metropolitan Area.
The portal will be the first step towards integration of all modes of public transport in the city.
Stressing the need for creating such a facility at the earliest to facilitate integration of information, CMRL managing director K. Rajaraman said the portal would help people to know the options available for commuting in the city.
He was speaking at a seminar on ‘Envisioning the comprehensive transport plan for Chennai Metropolitan Area’ organised by Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) on Thursday. Preliminary work on the portal has already begun and it is expected to be ready by March.
Using the portal, a person stranded at a railway station, for instance, will be able to find bus numbers and their timings to reach his destination in the shortest possible time.
The commuter will also be able to find out the time needed to reach the destination by walking and access a route map free of cost.
The portal will also provide information on parking lots, traffic pile-ups, bus routes, auto fares, and pavement-pedestrian interchanges for seamless transfer across different modes of transport.
There are a handful of portals managed by the government and also private entities that provide nuggets of data on public transport but a one-stop centre for information is lacking.
It is to tackle this challenge in information integration that the CUMTA is likely to consider the proposal for a unified portal.
Experts from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy are likely to help in the creation of the portal. After information integration is achieved, steps for physical integration will commence.
The CMRL has written to the Railways to integrate MRTS with CMRL as a step towards physical integration.
The move will also pave the way for a unified ticketing system for all modes of public transport.
Metropolitan Transport Corporation, the Chennai Corporation, Railways and the CMDA are likely to provide inputs for the creation of the portal.
Currently , we use the online portal my.metrocommute.in . This is also a good site and provides good amount of information. This could be integrated with the CMRL in future and walk ways between railway route and bus route could be provided.
The average commuter probably does not have access to the internet on
their smartphone (nor does he or she have a smartphone). I fail to
understand how this going to solve the problem of ensuring a smooth,
hassle-free commute.
I can think of 3 tech-free things that CUMTA could do to improve
things:
1. Make sure that there are autos and buses to AND from the Metro,
MRTS, and suburban stations. This will make it easier for people to
use these trains. At the Kotturpuram MRTS station, there's at least a
1 km walk to the bus either way, with absolutely no shade. Pathetic,
to say the least.
2. Have a common ticket for bus and trains. If this is done using a
smart card, then allow auto payments through it as well (probably
very challenging to implement, though)
Instead of focussing on actual improvements for commuters, trying to
bring in a web portal that may or may not help seems like a waste of
effort, time, and money. What percentage of commuters does CUMTA see
this benefiting?
Would be really good if this project comes to existence soon.
If a Unified Portal is currently absent, then what do you call the
options provided by Google??
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