BMTC mapping its stops, so you know when to start

BMTC is taking its Intelligent Transport System seriously. It has started the process of mapping its bus stops in the city to ensure commuters are able to plan their trips. In a process that began over a month ago, it trained a team of conductors to audit the bus stops.  They have to find out if there is a stop at a particular place and also the facilities that are available there. “Each conductor has to check if there are lighting and seating facilities at a stop, adequate land around it for commuters, information system and so on,” said Ram Thanagonde, one of the surveyors.

Mithila Jha, an urban consultant with BMTC, said that to ensure the ‘maps’ manually made by the surveyors are accurate, at least three verifications are done. “At least there surveyors go on a particular route and map the bus stops separately and we verify the location of the bus stop by comparing the maps made by each surveyor,” she said.

Each surveyor conducts ‘quality’ checks on the bus stop. They are then asked to map the routes and show the bus stops as well as the nearby buildings of interest or identification. “This is only the first step,” she said.

The next step is when the ‘geo-coding’ of bus stops is done. “This is when we map the longitude and latitude of bus stops. This information will then be put in our database,” she said. Once geo-coding of bus stops is done, the GPS facility to be installed in buses will be tagged to the bus stop. “With this, we can make sure that a bus halts at the designated stop,” she said.

Once the data is collected, it will be put up on the website so that passengers can access the information. “Similar to Google transit, passengers will be able to track the direction and route followed by each bus, track its timings and plan their trips accordingly,” she said. The primary audit is expected to be completed by the end of June.