Transport minister Kailash Gahlot launches map facility at bus shelters

Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot launched "integrated transit maps" facility at bus shelters on Thursday to provide details of routes to help passengers plan their journey.

The detailed maps installed on bus stops will provide information on bus routes, neighbouring areas in one km radius and bus schedule. The pilot project having four bus shelters was launched from Delhi Secretariat bus stop on Vikas Marg.

"The move is intended at improving the experience for bus commuters. The route map is a visual cognitive map bearing all routes passing through the bus stop, Metro network and key landmarks," said a senior officer.

The transit maps are at par with those in top cities globally such as London and New York among others, said Gahlot.

Also, according to officials, more such bus shelters are to come up, as the government had planned to build around 1,200 such shelters across the city.

"The Delhi government is undertaking all efforts to make the public transport system modern, efficient and a preferred mode of transport for residents and tourists. The current initiative is aimed at commuters, who are unable to use the bus network because they find it difficult to locate the bus routes and their timings. In the next one-and-half year, we will scale this feature to all bus shelters and also introduce the facility of real-time tracking of bus arrival time at the shelters," the minister said.

The AAP government had set up seven new depots for accommodating around 1,000 new buses to be procured by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) under the cluster scheme. The depots incude --- Bawana sector-1, Rani Khera -1, Rani Kera -2, Rani Khera-3, Dwarka sector-22, Dichaun Kalan and Rewla Khanpur.