Commuters using public transport in Tamil Nadu will soon have better information on bus timings at each stop with the authorities working on a GPS and geocoding facility.

All 3,485 bus stops in Chennai have been geocoded with latitude-longitude (lat-long). This is the first step to have a passenger information system on Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses plying in the city, said Tamil Nadu Transport Secretary PWC Davidar.

“We are now into the second phase by geocoding bus stops in entire State. The MTC team that worked in the project is training their colleagues in other transport corporations so that in the next three months, we should have a decent geocode of bus stops in the entire State,” he said at a seminar on Urbanscapes-Contours of Change and Connectivity: Intelligent Transport Systems organised by Chevening Alumni India (Chennai Chapter).

Davidar said the Transport Department is looking at possibility of installing GPS devices on government buses synchronised with geocoded bus stops.

This will help in vehicle tracking and provide passenger information service on the status of bus arrival and departure, he said.

Davidar said implementing Intelligent Transport System is a major challenge. For instance, buses of all eight transport corporations are dealing with legacy software systems that are standalone and not Web-enabled. Similarly, route rationalisation based on usage is another issue.

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