Google Maps not only about navigating: Here's how it's innovating for India

The two-wheeler mode in Google maps comes to India first as 70% of all the vehicles registered in the country are two-wheelers

Google is bringing in India-specific features on Google Maps to address unique challenges and opportunities, a senior company official said.

"Google Maps is not just about navigating from point A to B. We have been building for India, addressing the unique challenges and opportunities, with the sole aim of making Google maps more comprehensive, accurate and reliable," Google Maps for India, Program Manager, Anal Ghosh said.

Ghosh talked about innovating features for India specifically.

The two-wheeler mode in Google maps comes to India first as 70 per cent of all the vehicles registered in the country are two wheelers, he added.

"Two-wheeler mode in maps shows trip routes that use shortcuts not accessible to cars, buses and trucks. It also provides customized traffic and arrival time estimations," he said.

Google Maps' transit feature provides details on trains, bus and metro routes. It shows schedules for roughly 12,000 Indian railways trains, apart from updated public transport information for bus and metro routes.

"We are working closely with the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. We have been working with them to add public toilets (on google maps) across different cities in the country," Ghosh said.

The company has added public toilets on google maps in partnership with the government, the company said in a statement.

"We have launched real time buses in two cities--Kolkata and Surat. We are working to see how we can extend it to other cities as well," he added.