Delhi to get bus management system by October

Officials from the transport department at the event said that a pilot has already been conducted with 300 buses from three depots

Delhi’s transport department is likely to introduce a Bus Management System (BMS) within a month that will help collate real-time data and use it for multiple purposes including monitoring driver behaviour, route rationalisation using GPS data, and more efficient charging of electric buses.

(From Left) Director of Chartered Speed Sanyam Gandhi, ICCT researcher Revathy Pradeep; AVP, road transport at DIMTS Ajay Srivastava, Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot, DTC MD Shilpa Shinde, The Urban Catalysts founder Sonal Shah, ICCT India director Amit Bhatt, and ICCT associate researcher Bhaumik Gowande on Thursday. (HT photo)

The decision to introduce BMS was announced by Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot at the Indian Clean Transportation Summit, organised by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) on Thursday, where he also discussed the rollout of the Mohalla Buses — nine-metre electric buses that will be deployed on shorter routes within neighbourhoods across Delhi to serve as last mile connectivity options.

Hindustan Times is the media partner for the event.

Officials from the transport department at the event said that a pilot has already been conducted with 300 buses from three depots. The results have shown how bus data can be used for multiple purposes.

A dashboard will also be developed for the various categories of data collected, the officials cited above said.

“We will get information about whether the buses are stopping at all designated stops or not and whether the drivers are adhering to the routes. How much time, the buses are taking at each stop. Most of the routes are also very old, legacy routes and we will get to know if these can be made more efficient by reducing or adding stoppages. Also, we will get the digital ticketing data that will show peak hour demand and SOC data will suggest what time of day will be best for charging,” said Shinde.

The minister added that one of the big concerns for them has been the problem of drivers not stopping for women and children or students. He added that several complaints have been received and training sessions have also been conducted to sensitise drivers but with little impact.

“We have just not been able to figure out why the drivers would not stop for women or school children. There is some perception related to free ticketing but the sensitisation drives have not helped. Hopefully, BMS will help,” said Gahlot.

Talking about the mohalla bus system, Gahlot added that it is expected to be rolled out soon with routes nearly finalised. Officials from the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) said that they are also looking at optimal charging mechanisms.

“We have been running pilots along routes decided earlier by DMRC and have made certain changes in the timing of buses and their charging pattern. For some electric buses, we realised that instead of charging only once, we increased the intermittent charging time from 30 minutes to 45 minutes which helped increase their running time,” said Ajay Shrivastava, associate vice president of DIMTS.

Experts also shared how on-street parking along neighbourhoods should be managed for mohalla bus operations, what speeds should be adhered to and how bus queue shelters should be managed.