KOCHI: In a major move, the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) has tied up with Google Maps, the mapping service developed by Google. Through this partnership, Metro routes, fares, stop timing at each station and duration of the trip will be shared to the general public. Those having a mobile phone with Google Maps can easily access the service.
Google Maps is mainly used to know the real-time traffic conditions and route planning for travelling by foot, car, bicycle and air, or public transportation. KMRL, by tying up with Google Maps, will provide the exact position of the trains, the time to reach the station and the route map which will help passengers plan their journey.
“Kochi Metro on Google Map will benefit the users immensely as they can view the timing of trains at each station and expected length of their trip. This is a continuation of the open data initiative of KMRL. Because of availability of authentic information on the widely used Google Maps, commuters can have better-informed travel, and so we expect more commuters to our system,” said KMRL managing director APM Mohammed Hanish.
He said until now the Google map in Kochi only showed recommendations based on personal commute and trains. The public transit options in Kochi will now include Metro along with personal transport and trains.
Citizens will be the biggest beneficiaries and better-planned journeys will help KMRL to promote public transport and enhance the use of Metro by the public.
Through this initiative, KMRL joins other metro agencies like Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation in the country to push the transit data to Google Maps. KMRL launched the train schedule and fare information in GTFS format and became the first metro agency in India to adopt the open data approach.
GTFS stands for General Transit Feed Specification and is a format through which the transit data can be consumed by a wide variety of software applications. Post opening up the data KMRL has been in discussions with Google to integrate the metro information on Google maps, which is the most used map application for trip planning.
The inauguration was held at the KMRL office at Revenue Tower on Friday. After meeting the procedural requirements, the KMRL GTFS feed has been pushed and is now live on Google Maps. This would enable Google Maps to give better commuting recommendations to the users.
