Soon,live updates on CTU buses on mobile

The concept,to be implemented in phases,will include the first lot of new buses,which will ply in the city under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

The first lot is expected anytime this week. And by February,the entire fleet of 100 buses,including 40 AC and 60 non-AC buses manufactured by Tata,will start plying in the tricity.

According to the proposal,commuters will be able to get the desired information by sending the bus route number to a particular number.

The SMS number is yet to be finalised. The service is expected to be provided by BSNL,which is already providing its broadband service to CTU.

Elaborating on the proposal,CTU Director M L Sharma said: “CTU maintains a bank of information on buses,in which data about the 100 new buses will be added. Routes of the new buses have been finalised. They are being uploaded.”

This initiative has been enabled by the GPS devices installed in CTU buses.

Also,the Transport department has reduced the time lag between two buses to 15 minutes by designating as many as eight buses on a single route.

While the non-AC buses will ply on the nine ‘neglected’ grid routes,the AC buses will ply on the seven busy point-to-point routes.

At present,there are 29 routes under the grid system and 21 under the point-to-point system in the city.

PIS installed at 45 bus queue shelters
The CTU is just five screens away from completing its target of installing Public Information System (PIS) at 50 bus queue shelters,including ISBT-17 and ISBT-43,in the city.

These electronic screens provide running information in English about bus arrival time.