Info screens showing arrival time at all Chandigarh bus shelters by October

Chandigarh, June 18

For the convenience of passengers, the UT Transport Department has decided to install passenger information screens (PIS) at all bus queue shelters across the city.

Pradhuman Singh, Director Transport, said they had started installing the PIS at bus queue shelters last year and the project would be completed by the end of October.

He said the screens were being put up under the intelligent transportation system (ITS) installed in all Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) buses operating on local routes.

The UT Administration had last year decided to construct 221 new bus queue shelters across the city at a cost of Rs 7.31 crore. Of these, work on 102 had been completed, while the remaining shelters would be constructed by August in a phased manner.

An official said the construction of new bus queue shelters in villages and sectors was mooted as per the requirement of the Transport Department. The department had decided to implement the grid system of public transport so as to make it more public-friendly.

The locations of shelters in various sectors and villages was finalised by a team of officials from the Transport Department, Department of Urban Planning and the Engineering Department. Of the existing 148 bus queue shelters in the city, 11 were found structurally unstable. The remaining 137 have been retained after refurbishment, he said.

The screens will allow commuters to know the estimated time of arrival of buses, besides the timetable.

In August 2021, the Transport Department had launched the ITS for local buses. The World Bank-sponsored project, costing the administration around Rs 25 crore, aims at modernising the transport system, providing real-time information about buses on a mobile application. CTU services are being upgraded with IT-enabled solutions as well.

A primary control station at Sector 43 keeps track of all buses though the global positioning system and monitors these under a planned system. Bus depots are linked to the primary control station via local area network connections and bus drivers are provided with SMS facility to inform about their departure that is monitored by the central system.

A mobile app for passengers, “Tricity bus app”, has been developed. Through this, commuters in the city can get real-time information about the movement of buses, besides time of arrival and departure. The project has been implemented on 358 CTU buses running on 59 routes in the tricity.

Part of intelligent transportation system

• Transport Department started installing passenger information screens at bus queue shelters last year
• These are part of intelligent transportation system installed in all CTU buses operating on local routes
• Of 221 new bus queue shelters planned across city costing Rs 7.31 cr, 102 have been built, rest will be ready by August
• Of existing 148 shelters, 11 were found structurally unstable; remaining 137 have been retained after refurbishment