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Now, BEST to get smart with GPS, PIS on buses

System will track vehicles, provide real-time information on their routes

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To ease the commute of travellers, the BEST Undertaking has claimed that they will ensure that the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Passenger Information System (PIS) is installed in its buses within six months.

On August 8, DNA had reported about the perils faced by the Undertaking, one of them being the lack of any mechanism to gauge the time of arrival. According to BEST officials, they are currently working on this project where GPS will be installed inside buses.

"We are sure that the GPS inside buses and Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) at bus stops will be available to the public within six months," said SK Bagde, General Manager, BEST Undertaking.

The BEST has been working on the pilot project since October 2016. Sources said that as part of the project, 100 buses were fitted with GPS but since then nothing much has been taken forward.

"Presently there are around 1,200 buses which have had GPS installed but are not yet functional," said a BEST official.

The BEST has a total fleet of 3,700 buses. In 2016, through the PIS, they had marked bus stops with codes that were linked to the GPS. Through the mobile app, people check the bus stop code number and bus route number; which would then send the location of the bus in real-time and its ETA. However, the system was a failure as it had issues with its functioning and was never implemented.

Moreover, the Undertaking did not make efforts to promote this facility. The BEST had also announced a mobile app which remained incomplete.

With the absence of such an important tool for a public transport, people are ditching these buses for other modes of transportation such as taxis, autorickshaws, and mobile aggregators.

A new lot of single deck buses are plying on the road which include facilities such as WiFi, ample leg space, rooftop ventilation, real-time location, and ETA. But these have not been integrated with the BEST's system.

At present, a private agency has been given the job of studying the overall functioning of these GPS and ETA systems before it goes live. During this period, the bus stops too will be integrated.

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