Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Control Room to keep in line the brake of the buses


Till now the brake control of the bus was with the driver. Henceforth, this control would be with the Control Room. During any fire accident the driver by using Vehicle Mounted Unit (VMU) operating on SOS (Save our Soul), has to push the red button, and immediately the signal reaches the control room.

In case the driver is speeding, he will be getting directions from the directive for slowing down from the Control Room. In emergency period the engine will be stopped directly by control room and even speed of the vehicle will be reduced. This latest technology which is said to be ahead of Intelligent Transport System (ITS) will be adopted in country soon.
This was disclosed by Association of State Road Transport Undertakings (ASRTU) Executive Director PS Ananda Rao at the one-day conference on Intelligent Transport Enterprise innovation in planning and scheduling held in Mysore on Monday.

Stating VMU is a part of GPS and it gives the exact location, real time and speed of the vehicle, he said in case the driver is caught in the middle of traffic, by using the signal button the other vehicles route can be changed, avoiding traffic jams.

Innovative Strides in the Transport Sector

ASRTU is working on some programs to bring in innovation in transport sector. Specification for LED based Electronic destination board and Electronic bus ticketing machine has been formulated and ASRTU has finalised the contracts with manufacturers. A Tool-Kit for online Ticket Reservation System (OTRS) and Intelligent Transport System (ITS) has been formulated and sent to the Ministry for approval.

The other innovations include Alternate fuel program, Electric and hybrid vehicles, Fuel cell vehicles, ITS and ITeS for intelligent transport planning, Uniform platform for all transport operations in the country, such as taxation, policy, toll, excise, interstate arrangements, Vehicle Tracking System, Automatic Fare Collection System and much more.
Anand Rao that in a day, about 70 million people avail bus transport service of the SRTUs and per day 1538 million passenger kilometers are covered.
The total consumption of diesel amongst the SRTUs is 3200 million litres per annum. The oil import bill in India increases by 9.5 per cent to Rs 347,432 crore from April to August 2013. The Petrol consumption is nearly 16 million tonnes whereas diesel consumption is estimated at 69 million tonnes. Oil import burden on foreign exchange is $144 Billion, he added.
Human Error
When questioned about bus accidents, he said it might be caused because of human error, accident, or some sort of incident and not a technical fault.
Studying whether fuel tank is touched in low ground clearance, measures will be taken to shift the fuel tank or change the in design of Volvo buses, he added. 
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City buses to go hi-tech in city from June, 2014
Gone are the days to wait for buses. Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation has adopted Auto Scheduling (AS) from the manual scheduling. Due to this the buses will be on time and passengers need not wait for long time. The AS will come to force from June 2014 in city and Mysore is the first city to get this facility. Intelligent Transport System (ITS) was also introduced for first of its kind in Mysore.

Under the pilot project, KRS and Chaumndi Hill were selected. As per the study its learnt that per day seven buses, 28 crew members and Rs 60,000 was saved on the route. The same staff and buses were scheduled in other route, by which Rs 80,000 benefit has obtained for KSRTC.

Lumiplan India Operation (LIO), a france based company has did a survey in city and has calculated the actual travel time data from ITS, and set the frequency based operation such as normal, non-peak and peak hours.

LIO CEO David Moswzkowicz said that AS focuses on optimising and rationalising public transport operation and the project is being funded by French Government. Earlier scheduling was done manually and was unscientific. Now, the data collected through AS is very accurate, with timing and gives exact scientific data of bus trips, he added.

As many as 440 bus route will be auto scheduled in Mysore. At present more than 3.2 lakh commuters are commuting daily in Mysore, with 65000 trips, covering 128.4 sq km. The facilities will be extended soon to Bangalore, and all other division of KSRTC in phase manner.

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Commuters to be educated on safety measures

Government of Karnataka Principal Secretary Ravi Kumar said that volvo will come with new design in three months, as government has instructed all buses should compulsory have doors. As there is no doors in new buses and people could not locate emergency doors, the decision has been taken by the government, he observed.

Stickers, reflectors will be placed in buses to instruct people about safety measures. Video will be screened on buses and handbill will be distributed to commuters on safety measures to be followed in case of emergency.
GPS helps to keep track of the vehicles and GPS will be made mandatory for every bus. Instructions have been given to private buses not to carry more luggage and strict action will be taken against those who violate the law. Apart this, every individual passenger details has to be collected before they are given tickets,” he added.

'For long distances two drivers are must. As per the Motor Transport Workers Act, a transporter should not work more than eight hours in a day. Several of the unqualified drivers are driving the vehicles. Thus, measures will be taken to collect the details of the drivers,' he added.

Stating Public information system will be enhanced, he said there is shortage of Motor Vehicle Inspector at present.  

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