Bus travel made easy in God's own Country

CITIES: Private bus operators in Kerala will provide instant information to passengers regarding the location of a bus, its timings, etc via SMS and the internet

You are waiting at Edapally for the bus to Kochi, feeling restless about how long the bus will take to reach your stop. But now you can relax as just one SMS will solve your problem.

Write the bus number along with the bus stop you are waiting at and you will get all the real-time information like where the bus is at the moment, its speed, and how long it will take to reach you, and more.

Dhanus Technologies Ltd, one of India's fastest growing alternative telecommunications service provider based in Chennai, has entered into an exclusive Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Kerala State Private Bus Operators Federation to launch a first-of-its-kind initiative of installing satellite-based passenger information systems in all private buses across Kerala, along with its consortium partners, Sobha AppliedDSP and Kiran Technologies. Private bus operators own close to 85 per cent of the bus services in the state.

According to the exclusive MoU, Dhanus will provide its Telematics service, FleeTrac, to be installed in over 20,000 private buses in Kerala. The whole system includes the Fleetrac gadget fitted in each vehicle, GSM modem attached with a remote machine, standalone management station and a web-based solution.

FleeTrac is an integrated vehicle tracking system which will help display passenger information on multiple media, including SMS, using a centralised network operating centre. Besides basic information, web users will also be able to see Google maps to track their movement.

"With this initiative, the transport owners in Kerala will provide instant information to the passengers regarding location, arrival and departure timing and proposed arrival time of every individual bus via Internet and SMS," says Captain DS Srinivasan, joint managing director of Dhanus Technologies Ltd.

Besides regular passengers, this initiative will prove to be a boon to tourism in 'Gods own Country' ensuring that the millions of tourists who visit the state every year have accurate bus schedule information on their finger tips.

The passenger information systems would benefit bus operators also in times of unfortunate breakdowns, accidents, and help diverging routes.

"To facilitate locals, the information will be available in Malayalee besides English and Hindi. The system will be workable by the end of this year, given the timely co-operation by bus operators," Srinivasan informs.