Soon,a technological leap for commuters in 7 cities

Through the GPS,the buses are linked with the display boards which continuously display real-time information about the location of the buses and when they are expected to arrive.

An UPSRTC official said the systems will be installed in 1,300 buses,which are being acquired under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and will ply in seven cities of the state — Lucknow,Kanpur,Allahabad,Varanasi,Agra,Meerut and Mathura.

In Lucknow,the GPS,cameras and LED display systems have been installed in buses plying on route number 12 that connects Chinhat to Scooters India via Charbagh. The display boards have been installed at the passenger shelters at Charbagh and Bapu Bhawan.

“The GPS will also enable officials to monitor the movement of buses and their speed. The system will also be useful in finding the exact location of a bus in case of an accident or traffic congestion,” said Ajit Singh,Assistant Regional Manager,Lucknow Mahanagar Parivahan Seva (LMPS).

An official said that the system will help curb overspeeding by drivers. Whenever any buses crosses the prescribed speed limit,an alert with its registration number and location will flash on a computer screen in the control room which can caution the driver immediately,said an official.

Regarding the cameras in the buses,the official said these will record all activity inside the vehicles and send the video to the control room every 5 minutes. The recordings will be stored in the server for 48 hours.

“It will help in checking harassment of women and pick-pocketing in the buses by identifying the culprits. Those who damage buses could also be identified,” the official said.

In addition to these systems,each bus will have electronic ticketing machines,which would make accounting easier.

While a control room of buses bought under the JNNURM scheme in Lucknow would be set up in LMPS workshop in Gomti Nagar,a centralised server control room of all the seven cities would be set up at the Charbagh bus terminal.

The new system is already getting the thumbs-up from commuters. “Now the drivers don’t stop buses wherever they like and howsoever long they like. The buses come on time,” said Dinesh Sharma,who works at secretariat.

For Kirti Kanaujia,the cameras are the best part of the new system. “The police can now easily identify those who harass women in buses. Similarly,if the bus staff misbehaves with passengers,they can’t get away by blaming the passengers,” she said.

Once the system is fully functional,it will be possible to get the location of any bus by a text message. This means that before leaving home and office,a commuter can check when exactly the bus would arrive and not waste his time waiting.

The buses are being bought at a cost of Rs 326 crore. Of the 1,310 buses,300 CNG buses are being bought for Lucknow and Kanpur and 200 CNG buses for Agra.

Besides,there will be 510 diesel buses — 150 each for Varanasi,Allahabad and Meerut and 60 for Mathura.