The fleet of buses under the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) will be provided with the Global Positioning System (GPS) very soon. This move is expected to make its services more efficient.
Thus the passenger information system will be technically more developed and real time through this new GPS-enabled system. It will enable display boards to show real time information on all the buses since it can gauge the exact location of the vehicles.
Keltron, who is providing the technical know how and instruments for the project, is said to have the infrastructure needed for the project. A senior official from the KSRTC department is confident that the project will start getting implemented by the end of January, next year.
According to KSRTC sources, Keltron’s GPS facility is being used by a few State Police which includes West Bengal Police and Kerala Police and in Bangalore to identify parking spaces.
Also, conductors using manual racks, according to Yentha sources, will soon be a thing of the past. Manual racks and ordinary Electronic Ticketing Machines (ETMs) will be replaced by General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) enabled ETMs which will make ticketing much easier. At present these machines are used chiefly by the Fast and Super Fast buses that travel outside the Trivandrum city. It is hoped that these ETMs will be provided to all KSRTC conductors in the city within two months, says the KSRTC official.
The 50-grams heavier instruments are being provided by Quantum Power Systems, a Bangalore based company. Though a few conductors complained that the battery in the new instrument did not last long enough, KSRTC officials assured Yentha that it can work for two days or produce approx. 4500 tickets.
Yentha.com
