Govt floats tender for real-time passenger information of DTC, cluster buses

The DTC aims at implementing the system in 18 weeks, from the date a work order is issued to the chosen vendor.

The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has issued a tender concerning a real-time passenger information system which will enable commuters to access information on bus routes, estimated arrival times, fare, location of nearest buses which they wish to board, availability of seats and best options for interchange on their mobile phones.

People board a DTC bus at AIIMS in New Delhi. (Amal KS/HT Photo)

The tender document titled “engagement of vendor to design, develop, implement, operate and maintain real-time passenger information system for DTC buses” – which HT has seen – is broadly divided into three categories focussing on a mobile application for commuters, a separate mobile app for DTC staff, and an interface to help crunch passenger usage statistics.

The DTC aims at implementing the system in 18 weeks, from the date a work order is issued to the chosen vendor.

The system will initially be for all DTC buses, but the vendor entrusted with the job is expected to integrate the routes operating under the cluster bus fleet too, the document said.

While DTC currently has 3,702 buses in its fleet, the cluster fleet has 3,080. All of them have GPS devices fitted and locations are monitored in control rooms. “The system aims at further breaking down information on multiple parameters and making it available to commuters on their phones,” said a senior official in DTC.

The application for DTC staff is supposed to help them with assigning routes, management of bus timings, monitoring routes, trip durations, registering real-time information on occupancy in each bus and preparing consolidated reports on daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis, the document said.

The interface on passenger usage statistics will deal with data such as origin, destination, date, time, and passenger profiles. Passenger profile information may include name, age, gender, mobile number, email address, residential area, place of work, the document said. The data is supposed to help the government on ascertaining which locations witness the most footfall, at what time, which routes witness the most footfall and at which hours. It is supposed to help in the management of bus routes, the DTC official said.

Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot had mentioned about real-time information system on November 22 when the Delhi Cabinet, chaired by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, had given approval for induction of 1,250 low-floor buses in the DTC fleet.

“Such interfaces come under the domain of intelligent transport system. Such a system is capable of helping people plan their travels, which has been a problem when it comes to the bus system in Delhi. Such systems increase reliability of the transport network and scale up efficiency. Many developed cities across Europe, America and Asia have such systems in place,” said PK Sarkar, an expert with the intelligent transport system committee at the International Organisation for Standardisation.