BENGALURU: In one of the first initiatives of its kind, individuals passionate about decongesting the traffic in the city, launched a mobile app on all aspects pertaining to suburban train travel through Facebook on Thursday evening.Currently available for download from Google Play Store on Android phones, it will be extended on mobiles running on iOS in a few days. While the English launch of the multi-lingual app took place on Thursday, the app will be launched in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi soon.
The 45-minute launch was shown live on three Facebook pages from the Jayanagar office of Mobigini. Even as popular RJ Pradeep and the duo, which made the project a reality, Rakesh Tergundi, CEO & founder of Mobijini, and Suhas Narayana Murthy, popular Facebook page ‘Namma City Express’ founder, were explaining the features and utility of ‘Railjini’, the chat sections of the pages were flooded with messages from delighted Bengalureans.
“Love you”, “Great”, “awesome”, “stress relief for IT guys” and tons of congratulatory messages poured in, offering a clear insight into the desperation of Bengalureans for quicker travel.Murthy, the brain behind the app, said that his objective was to do away with traffic woes and “restore the serenity and modesty of Bengaluru”. The timing to launch this was perfect now as nearly 1.5 lakh commuters use suburban services presently, he said. “The information will be invaluable to the IT crowd who want more knowledge on suburban services,” he added. There are 800 companies in Bellandur, Whitefield, Sarjapur Road, Marathahalli, Mahadevapura, Electronic City and 15 lakh employees commute to them daily on 8 lakh private vehicles. “Much stress and pollution can be avoided daily by using suburban trains.”
Tergundi said, “You just need to download it and fill in your present station and destination. It will throw up all the available trains from your stop, their arrival timings, stoppages enroute with the time and the time taken to reach your destination.”
A crucial step to update passengers about frequent delays of suburban trains would be to rope in volunteers on trains who will keep updating the status of trains to others as part of crowdsourced feedback efforts.
Future plans involve providing last-mile connectivity, virtual chat room, details on Metro trains and Area-to-Area connection, so that the app provides the nearest railway station for all areas in the vicinity. “Daily travel on a suburban train costs just around `10, with a monthly pass available at a cheaper price,” he added.
For details, log on to www.railjini.com