Times of India: Chennai: Monday, August 18, 2014.
He sifts
through letters and petitions to decide on whether an area needs more buses or
in some cases, a new route. The Metropolitan Transport Corporation's deputy
manager for planning sits in an office on Pallavan Salai that's out of touch
with the changing city outside. Data is not collected scientifically to improve
bus services for the ever-expanding city.
Operating
3,531 buses from 27 depots on more than 800 routes, MTC does not have transit
experts or consultants on board, it said in an RTI reply to TOI. "For new
routes, we usually look at representations from people and see if what they ask
for is feasible," said an MTC official. "In the extended areas, if
the Chennai Corporation has laid new roads, we might consider new routes on our
own."
It does not
increase frequency of services or modifications to routes based on
scientifically collected data on commuter traffic.
The RTI reply
also said that the corporation spent 1,096 per bus per month on maintenance of
the GPS tracking and passenger information system. The systems were installed
on 500 buses in 2008 and were removed in September 2013.
The systems
were supposed to collect data on number of commuters to help MTC plan services
but they were only on 500 buses, so the data could not be used to draw useful
inferences. This data was also not available online and the private companies
involved neither made the information public nor allowed third-party developers
to build apps that could be used by commuters to find out the location of the
buses.
In a report
released last week, Comptroller and Auditor General of India also said that MTC
made an investment in GPS/GPRS without proper financial arrangements. In 2008,
MTC procured 495 onboard units at a cost of 83.6 lakh. It did not use any of
them leading to a total loss of 2.87 crore between January 2008 and September
2012.
Though the
MTC website gets close to 2,000 hits a day, it is updated only once a month.
Information about changes to routes is not available. The only thing that gets
updated on the site daily is the number of tickets sold. "The only
information I can get from the website is the number of halts on a route. I
can't get information if I'm taking more than one bus," said T Vinodh, a
regular commuter.
According to
the RTI reply, the website gets 1,905 hits a day, far lower than the number of
tickets issued, which is an average of 32.3 lakh a day. "The website hits
will be lower in reality as this number includes the number of page views,
which is about three or four per person. In reality, the actual number is about
25% less than the quoted figure," said a source in the department.
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