CHENNAI: Bus commuters will no longer have to depend on the information desk to learn the bus routes at CMBT and Broadway bus terminals. The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) has installed digital display boards, near entrance gates in city’s two busy bus depots.
The board displays the origin and end point of a bus number in Tamil. “All the major bus stops en route will also be displayed on the board. In addition, a voice in Tamil will read the bus numbers and the routes. Details of all the buses operated from the particular depot will roll one after another,” said a senior MTC official.
This is aimed at providing basic bus route information to commuters and reduce the inquiry at the time keeper desk at bus depots. “The old display boards do not provide bus routes. The depots are short staffed. Now, we expect a section of commuters to get basic information through the digital board,” explained the official.
The CMBT and Broadway bus terminals handle more than two lakh commuters a day, with over 3,000 bus services covering 200 bus routes. Two more digital boards are to be set up at Thiruvanmiyur and T Nagar. Officials said all the major depots in Chennai will get digital boards. “Barring a few depots which are chosen for upgrade under Smart City project, we are planning to set up digital boards at all MTC depots including Adyar, Thiruvotriyur, Vadapalani, Tambaram, Guindy and Saidapet.”
A proposal to make the display boards GPS enabled are also on the cards, said MTC sources. “Once display boards are upgraded to recognise the GPS trackers in the buses, it will read out the buses which are stationed in the depots. The proposal is in pipeline, but, implementation may take time,” said the official
Future plans
With the fleet capacity of 3,600, MTC caters to about 38 million commuters a day. There are 33 bus depots. A proposal to make the display boards GPS enabled are also on the cards, said MTC sources.