New system to have cameras, safety features

Though what most passengers need is the location tracking system for BMTC buses, known as the Automatic Vehicle Location System (AVLS), the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) is much larger than this, says Surya Sen, Director (IT), BMTC.

The AVLS aims to track buses using GPS devices. The system for this has been developed and is being tested. Out of 2,500 buses fitted with GPS devices, 100 have active sim cards that facilitate information exchange between the server and the device. These are being tested as of now, say BMTC officials. The new system was supposed to be launched in November, and the officials are hopeful of sticking to the deadline.

A company that was awarded the tender of live location and e-ticketing system worked from 2016 to 2021. However, the live location provision was not always useful, with the devices being dysfunctional many a time and the buses staying stationary on the live map.

When Covid hit, the ITS project also took a hit. Devices became dysfunctional and BMTC had to pay the contractor on a pro-rata basis, for only the devices that were active. And then, in December 2021, all contracts including the one for Electronic Ticketing Machines (ETM) expired, and the location tracking system that was already in the ICU died.

The BMTC spent Rs 32 crores in five years for the project, which the sources say was cheap. “The company quoted an unreasonably low price for the task and won the bid, but could not provide quality service,” said a source.

“The machines that were brought in 2014 had old, 2G-compatible hardware. They got expired; the BMTC is in the process of replacing them. This is why there is no passenger information system available currently,” says Sen.

Revamping the ITS

Now the BMTC is gearing up to launch a brand-new ITS. The project is divided into two parts, with tracking, safety and surveillance in one part and ticketing in the other part. The tracking part alone will cost Rs 37 crore for four years, said an official.

The funds for ITS partly come from the Nirbhaya fund, where the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA) will bear 60% of it and the state contributes 40%.

The project will involve safety and surveillance. There will be two cameras in every bus, which will monitor the inside and outside of the BMTC buses. This will come in handy in case of untoward incidents.

The BMTC’s new project got delayed because of a chip shortage. “The vendor has sorted it out and devices with new chips are getting installed. About 2,500 buses have got the devices but sims have not been activated,” says Sen.

The first phase will have GPS in 5,000 buses. Officials say that the new electric buses being purchased come fitted with their own GPS devices. The data from them will be integrated into the ITS to get the live location of those buses.

The Passenger Information System (PIS) app being developed will provide live locations of buses and expected arrival times. It will also have facilities for e-ticketing, passes etc, according to officials.

The app can draw live data from Google maps. Even then, it may be difficult to provide 100% accuracy with respect to location and arrival timings, due to the traffic conditions in the city, say sources.

E-ticketing to come back

In the earlier tender, the ITS and ETMs were clubbed in one project, but now they will be separate. The new tender for the ETM is yet to be floated.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) came up with a plan to fund the BMTC based on the procurements. Now the BMTC needs to float a new tender accounting for buying ticketing machines.

The maintenance of the machines will be outsourced with AMC contracts. It will take more than nine months for the process to complete, says an official. E-ticketing saves time for bus conductors and speeds up the process.

What if the MORTH does not extend funding assistance four years later? Sen says that the BMTC is focusing on having an in-house team for ITS, which will monitor the project and will partner with start-ups and institutions like IITs, IIITs etc to develop the technology. This will reduce reliance on outside funding and knowledge in order to run daily operations, he adds.

With the new project and new contracts, is the BMTC reinventing the wheel, by developing the ITS all over again? Sen says this is not true. “ITS is BMTC’s operational software which includes duty scheduling, driver scheduling, location tracking, and monitoring. The software built by the previous company in 2016 won’t get phased out. New upgrades are built over it,” he adds.

Who owns the data? Sen says: “BMTC owns the data. The apps will be hosted on BMTC’s servers.”

Integrated transport cards for Metro and BMTC have been talked about for a long time, and are still being talked about. National Common Mobility Cards (NCMC), a concept of MOHUA where UPI and NPCI are involved, is supposed to come up.

“If it does not, the BMTC can collaborate with BMRCL for a joint closed-loop card. In the future, this can also have Bengaluru Suburban Rail Transport System (BSRTS) on board,” says Sen, indicating that a common card might be coming out soon, as Metro already has the technology required.