The digital boards, being put up by BMTC under Nirbhaya scheme, contain information about the bus routes, if they are AC or non-AC buses, their Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) and its destination
The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), which has taken up a project to put up digital LED boards informing commuters about the buses arriving at the stop in bus shelters, has hit a roadblock.
With one of the agencies that maintains shelters under the public-private partnership (PPP) with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) yet to get on board, only about half the shelters now have digital information boards.
Such boards are a common sight at Traffic Transit Management Centres (TTMC), and using resources from the Nirbhaya Fund, the BMTC plans to install similar commuter-friendly LED boards at all bus stops and the project has been under way for the past two years now.
The boards contain information about the routes, if they are AC or non-AC buses, their estimated time of arrival (ETA), and its destination.
It should be noted that in Bengaluru, most bus shelters are owned and maintained by the BBMP and hence the BMTC needs permission from the civic body to put up these boards.
Why the hiccup
However, according to officials from the BMTC, there is a hiccup in the process as most of these bus shelters have been given out to private agencies, on a PPP model for advertisement revenue, for a period of 20 years.
“Under the provisions of the Nirbhaya scheme fund, we need to put up 500 digital boards in the city, and so far, we have only put up 288 boards. While two agencies have agreed to put up boards, another has not,” Sathyavathi G., Managing Director, BMTC, told The Hindu.
The agencies are contending that BMTC should put up its own electricity meters to light up the shelters in the night hours, for the boards to be visible.
Where they are visible
Some of these digital boards can be found near the Shantinagar TTMC, Jayanagar, and Infantry Road bus shelters among other places.
Citizen activists said that these information boards would get more people to utilise public transport and should be put up in all bus shelters in the city.
“It is totally unacceptable that information boards cannot be put up at bus shelters. What is the point of having bus shelters if there is no information about when the buses are arriving. This also shows that the BBMP does not know how to maintain bus stops and that they fail to consult BMTC about the same. We need an audit of bus shelters in the city and information boards among other basic requirements should mandatorily be present at these shelters,” said Vinay Sreenivasa of Bus Prayanikara Vedike.
However, Chief Civic Commissioner Tushar Giri Nath denied the claims. “The agencies are duty-bound to display the information boards in bus stops. We are only facilitating it as it is supposed to be put up at the bus stops,” he said.
Bus tracking system
While trying to navigate these problems, the BMTC is also planning to bring about a comprehensive bus tracking system under the Nirbhaya scheme.
“We will soon track all the buses with GPS tracking devices under the scheme and we are also going to relaunch the Namma BMTC app shortly. It already has over 1 lakh users. We are planning to link everything under the scheme,” Ms. Satyavathi said. She also said that work was in progress to put up the remaining digital boards in the city, mainly in BMTC bus stations.
