Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Transport buses get smarter

The civic transport services in Kalyan-Dombivli have just got smarter. The buses and bus stops of Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Transport will be operated under the Integrated Transit Management System

The civic transport services in Kalyan-Dombivli have just got smarter. The buses and bus stops of Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Transport (KDMT) will be operated under the Integrated Transit Management System (ITMS).

The buses and bus stops of Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Transport will be operated under the Integrated Transit Management System. (HT FILE PHOTO)

The Smart Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation Limited (SKDCL) launched this system earlier this week in which its 55 buses and bus stops in the city got smart facilities for the passengers on board.

“This system is meant to give better experience for the passengers while taking a civic bus. They will get all the details of the buses under one roof, making it convenient for them,” said Vijay Suryavanshi, KDMC commissioner.

Under this system, 40 bus stops in the city will have boards with information of the buses, bus routes and timings, 55 buses will have OBU (on board unit) installed in them which does GPS tracking, a control room at the Ganesh Ghat depot in Kalyan (W) and 200 electronic machines for ticket vending.

“The unit will help show the details of the next bus stop on screen in the bus and also make announcements. At the same time, the passengers waiting at the bus stop will be able to see the details of the next bus arriving and its time duration on the board,” said Ghanshyam Bhabad, manager IT, SKDCL.

In this system, a passenger gets all the details of the KDMT bus service through a mobile application named ‘KDMT bus service’.

“The app will help passengers to plan their travel in advance with all the details available on it,” said Bhabad.

One can also book bus tickets through the app. The entire system will prove to be beneficial for the KDMT authorities too as they will be able to track the buses and plan the services accordingly.

Passengers in Kalyan-Dombivli have also welcomed the idea of ITMS. However, some also have raised the concerns over the issues like breakdown of civic buses, maintenance of the buses and more frequency.

“The smart system in the buses is good. However, what about the maintenance of the buses as many a time, the civic buses break down. There is a need to have properly-maintained buses to the fleet so that these smart features are experienced by the passengers without any hurdle. Also, there is a need to have more civic buses with increased frequencies,” said Ashwini Jain, 39, a passenger who takes the civic bus from Kalyan to Panvel for work.

In KDMT, there are total 253 buses, out of which 112 are scrap. Out of the functional 141 buses, only 55 are presently plying on different routes while the rest are under repair and maintenance. It will take at least six months for the remaining buses to ply.

Presently, the 55 buses which are plying on different routes got smarter with the ITMS installed in it.