Soon, passengers travelling aboard Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) buses will be able to track bus movement in real-time and will also get useful information such the time they can expect buses to arrive and depart for destinations on their fingertips. This will be possible with the transport juggernaut drawing up plans and floating tenders to set up a Vehicle Tracking and Passenger Information System (VTPIS) which would cover approximately 42% of its fleet.
Official TSRTC documents show that the move would initially cover 4,170 special buses of its total fleet strength of 9,728 buses. The tender, which was floated recently, specifies that as many as 1,201 intra-city and 2,969 long distance and inter-city buses would be covered. Provisions are in place to scale up VTPIS installation to as many as 10,500 buses, as and when the need arises.
According to officials, to have VTPIS on TSRTC buses is a passenger friendly-move. Estimated time of departure (ETD) and estimated time of arrival (ETA) of buses, with minimal variance, and tracking the current location of buses in real-time would save passengers’ precious time. Meaning, passengers will be able to plan their journey better, and reduce waiting time with the information made available to them.
The TSRTC also hopes that reports which are generated using the information generated through VTPIS would greatly improve operational efficiency.
While the tenders have already been floated, intending bidders sought clarifications, and also put forward their concerns on certain technical and financial aspects before the TSRTC. For instance, intending bidders sought clarifications on whether the supply of computer hardware is included in the scope of work, and also on International Standardization Organization certifications.
While technical bids were scheduled to be opened on October 29, this has been postponed to November 5.
It was in 2019 that the transport juggernaut had discussed a similar initiative with the working title ‘TSRTC Live!’. The first phase entailed live-tracking buses to and from the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. An app found its way to the Google Play Store. The project, however, did not make much headway and the app was taken down.
