24-04-2025
Even three years after launch, people not able to track movement of city buses using Mangaluru Smart City app
The Mangaluru Smart City Limited (MSCL)'s 'smart transport' feature on the 'Mangaluru Smart City' app has remained dysfunctional and people are unable to track movement of about 300 odd city buses.
The MSCL launched its app in April 2021, which also had a 'smart transport' feature (a section in the app), among other features, to help people track the movement of city buses. This feature was incorporated in the app shortly after 'Chalo app', launched by Dakshina Kannada Bus Owners' Association in association with a mobility firm, failed to serve the purpose as buses kept their GPS devices off while on the city roads.
'Initially GPS feed of nearly 200 buses was made available to the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) of the MSCL. The feed came down to 60 buses three months ago. Now we are getting the feed of only 30 buses,' an MSCL official told The Hindu.
But when searched by clicking on the 'smart transport' section, either on the basis of destination or by bus route number, list of buses with route number appears with a note 'trip not started'.
When reluctance of bus operators to share the GPS feed of their buses with the ICCL of MSCL was raised in the district Road Transport Authority meeting on November 5, 2024, the Deputy Commissioner M. P. Mullai Muhilan said not sharing GPS feed will be considered as an offence. While stating that 'smart transport' feature will be fully functional from the end of November 2024, the Deputy Commissioner said the 'smart transport' feature will help district administration to rationalise city bus routes.
Despite the instruction by the Deputy Commissioner, the city bus operators are not sharing GPS feed with the MSCL.
Shridhar K. Mallad, Regional Transport Officer (RTO), Mangaluru who is member-secretary of District Road Transport Authority, said he will pursue matter with the city bus owners.
Without telling the reasons for not sharing the GPS data with MSCL, President of Dakshina Kannada Bus Owners' Association, Aziz Parthpady, told The Hindu: 'We will sort out the issues involved to enable people to track the movement of buses on the app.'
