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Mangaluru: In a move that will revolutionize way Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) operates its fleet across Karnataka and beyond, the state transporter has embarked on an expansion mode of its vehicle tracking and monitoring system (VTMS). Having installed this real time tracking and monitoring system in 2,000 buses in 2013, KSRTC has now invited tenders to install it in express and premier bus services operated by NEKRTC, NWKRTC and KSRTC as well.

 Having gained positive feedback from VTMS over a sustained trial period of six to eight months since it was installed, KSRTC now intends to install the system in nearly 4,500 buses of NEKRTC and NWKRTC as well around 6,000 buses with KSRTC. State transporter has taken this decision with sole interest of optimization of its resources, study the traffic bottlenecks enroute and also ensure that the schedules are operated as per route specified and touching all points enroute

 Rajendra Kumar Kataria, managing director, KSRTC told TOI that a common plaint with people using KSRTC is that buses tend to skip designated bus stations leaving them in the lurch. With VTMS, there is accurate details of the route a bus has traversed and time taken to do so. "It will help pin point reasons for delays in a particular stretch and if it is those beyond our control such as bad roads, the feedback will be passed on to department concerned," he said.

 Since the state transporter charges fare per distance, and also pays overtime to staff, VTMS will help rationalize the same enabling it to realize exact fare from a travelling passenger and also provide overtime to staff based on actuals. As per a quick back of the envelope calculation, KSRTC pays nearly Rs 64 crore as overtime to its staff. VTMS will cost the state transporter around Rs 16 crore and projections are that it will break even on the investment in an year.

 While KSRTC has set up a state of the art control room in Bengaluru to monitor the VTMS data, it will set up similar control rooms for NEKRTC and NWKRTC and integrate the same with KSRTC for seamless control of the fleet. An additional benefit for passenger, Kataria explained it that they will be able to go in for current booking of seats for a destination on a service of their choice as VTMS also gives real time position on seats available in a bus.