BMTC has laid the groundwork for the relaunch of its mobile application.
Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) officials are working on the procedures of installation of live trackers in its buses. The BMTC mobile application is not working since 2021.
A Priyanka, System manager, BMTC, said that the official application to track the live location of BMTC buses had been halted, but the authority is gearing up for a relaunch. “The work order for live trackers has been allotted and BMTC is now executing the project. This project will take time because the process involves reading data, analysing it, creating the algorithm and giving the estimate time of arrival of the buses,” she said.
Shobit, a final year student from Jain University said, “I use BMTC buses to travel and go to college. I installed the BMTC mobile application in 2019 soon after it was launched. The app was quiet useful because I was able to track the buses which I had to board. The app saved my time and I did not have to wait long for the buses,” he said. “When my college reopened after COVID-19, I realised that the app was not working. Now I have to wait for 15-20 minutes for the buses to arrive.”
Priyanka further said that when the application was launched in 2019, it had around five lakh users. She said, “We have an alternate application ‘Tummoc’ that is functional. It does not track the live location but gives the accurate bus routes to the commuters. For the apps to give proper live location of buses, installation of live trackers is a must.”
Sahil, a commuter from Banaswadi said, “Post COVID-19, I often faced issues with live tracking of buses. I used this application not only to track buses but also to know the bus routes. Now I am aware of bus routes but the problem is with the live tracking of buses.”
Amrit Singh, an application developer, said that the Global Positioning System (GPS) must be very strong in rural areas so that the data collection before the launch of the application is accurate. He said, “The government spends large amount of money on developing applications so they should have live trackers with an excellent connectivity to track the buses.. In rural areas, it takes time to set up the GPS system so the application developers must start setting it up from rural areas.”
