Now you need not have to wait indiscriminately at the bus stops. Gone are the days when one used to wait at Bus stop for a bus not knowing when the next one will come. West Bengal Transportation Corporation in association with Google Maps is coming up with a mechanism to track real time location of buses.
You just need to type, “Bus Between” and write the names of bus stands. You will get the timings and tariff of the buses between the routes. Also, it will help you find the various bus options available between two stops.
“This real time tracking will help anyone using the public transportation in the city. Running solely on GPS earlier from a few years, now the system is transitioning to ETM backed that will have dual purpose: help in tracking buses and also monitor the ticketing” said Mr. Rajanvir Singh Kapur, the MD of WBTC that runs the buses in the city.
Representing the Google association, Head of Data Products from Lepton, Mr. Vijay Kumar Dhatwalia said, “This would be very helpful for all bus commuters to see live location of buses & they can plan their journey as per their ease. This would also promote the WBTC services & revenue enhancement owing to live visibility of buses & increase usage of public transport.”
WBTC in association with Google had launched its Real time Bus Transit services in 2017 for the ease for commuters on Google maps. The Google map is helpful for city commuters to know the Real time location of the buses and plan their journey accordingly. Location of buses was earlier tracked from GPS devices installed in the buses however the delay responses & failure of devices were a bottleneck.
To overcome the concerns of the GPS devices in receiving precise locations from the WBSTC buses, WBTC is taking initiative to implement ETM (electronic ticket machines) in all the buses. ETM machines would provide exact live location along with real time ticket management for the same. The transition is taking place and the full routes Real time information will be available from Mid-May.
