The Delhi government on Wednesday joined hands with Google to integrate the capital’s public transit system onto the Google Maps platform. The aim is to provide real time information of all public buses to the commuters. With this move, Delhi will join the league of global cities where real-time data of all buses is being incorporated onto the platform.

Once this project gets kicked off, static and dynamic location data of Delhi buses will be available for passengers in real-time. A bus user will get information of all the routes and bus stops, all bus arrival and departure times in real-time, and even by bus numbers.

There will also be updates on any delays which will reduce waiting time and hence reduce crowding at bus stops, along with increased accountability of public buses.

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This feature is also available in Hindi and users can also change the language in Google Maps settings or within the device language settings. During the launch, Google also presented a demo of how transit data can be used to get real time information on buses.

‘Smart transport’

“Delhi, under the visionary leadership of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been at the forefront of providing an accessible, smart and sustainable public transport system to the people in Delhi. Increased surveillance through CCTVs, live tracking and e-ticketing facilities, and free travel for women are already available to all bus commuters in Delhi. With today’s partnership with Google Maps, Delhi joins the league of global cities that provide seamless, real time information of public transport. People will now be able to plan their journeys to the minute,” said Kailash Gahlot, Transport Minister, Delhi.

Earlier in 2018, the Delhi government had developed and published Open Transit Data with the technical support of Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi to provide real-time data, including geo-coordinates of all bus stops, route maps, timetables as well as the real time GPS feeds of bus locations, that could be used by third party app developers and researchers.

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Further in 2018, ONE Card and ONE Delhi App was also developed, which enabled app based ticketing for a user to book normal and pink tickets, and passes by scanning a QR code.

This collaboration will encourage several other transit apps to tap into the open data portal of the transport department and create innovative solutions to make Delhi’s public transport system the default choice for everyone, he added.

“We are constantly exploring ways to make the Google Maps experience more useful, and we hope the people of Delhi will benefit from having access to this information in making smart commuting choices especially in these times. Delhi has been a front runner in launching an open data portal, which has been the driving force behind today’s launch. We hope their efforts in this direction will inspire many other cities in India and internationally to follow suit,” said Ramesh Nagarajan, Director Product Management, Google.

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