The location of buses will be announced on a real-time basis only in Tamil. English will be added later | martin louis
CHENNAI: The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) recently commenced the installation of a GPS-based system to announce the approaching stop in its buses. While the geo-coding of over 6,000 bus stops in the City and parts of the neighbouring districts was completed two years ago, installation of the system in 500 buses began a few days ago, a senior MTC official said.
“About six speakers are being fitted in every bus and wiring work is underway,” he added. Tenders have been floated to install the announcement system in 1,000 more buses and the rest of the buses will be covered in a phased manner.
Initially, the location of buses will be announced on a real-time basis only in Tamil. “After studying the implementation of the project, English will be included in the announcement system,” added the official.
“The system will trigger the announcement 200 to 250 meters before the next stoppage. Since all the buses have been fitted with location tracking devices, the announcement system will be introduced in all ordinary, express and deluxe buses,” said an official.
S Vikram Kumar, a bus enthusiast from Iyyappanthangal said, “Although the bus announcement was introduced on a trial basis in 37G and a few other routes a few months ago, the poorly maintained display boards created a lot of confusion among commuters,”
“To enhance the visibility for commuters, buses will be fitted with LED display scrolling boards. The board names written manually will be removed soon,” another MTC official said.
ROLL OUT SOON
3,233 MTC fleet
602 Routes
6,026 Stoppages (including bus stands/terminals)
Average distance between two stops: 500 to 600 meters
Announcement system: 200 to 250 meters before next stop
