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Journalism of Courage
Passengers will soon be able to locate Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal (PMPL) buses on Google Maps through the intelligent transit management system, a trial project of which has been announced with 20 buses from five depots.
The system was introduced in mid-2017 with the technical support from a Japanese company. However, the Japanese firm pulled out of it in less than two years citing a delay in payment from the transport body.
The relaunching of the system in collaboration with Google will help passengers to know the real-time location of their buses.
As per officials, technical challenges delayed the trial project. “We began our project in November 2022 but noticed inconsistency in tracking the buses on the map, as GPS needs dedicated routes to track the location. This was difficult in the case of PMPML buses as routes may get changed due to maintenance and breakdowns,” said Traffic Planning Officer Vijay Ranjane.
To resolve this issue, PMPML came up with software built by specialist and skilled engineers from Twarit Mobility Solution, a software development company. This will help PMPML’s four on-board unit vendors to fix software issues on 950 buses. Currently, 650 buses have such units.
“After completing the test drive on September 15, we will go with the scale-up programme, which will take around two months. Due to technical issues, we have not seen the scale-up for the last one and a half years. This time ITMS (intelligent transit management system) will be a Diwali gift for the people of Pune,” said the officer.
However, a Pune-based transport activist, Jugal Rathi, asked PMPML to prove its efficiency. “It is very important for passengers to know their location, but there are doubts about the planning and directions of PMPML. Due to the free partnership with third parties, PMPML fails to complete it,” he said.
