Mangaluru City private buses yet to share GPS feed with Smart City’s Transport Management System

Bus owners in Mangaluru fail to share GPS feed with MSCL despite mandatory requirement, impacting commuters and route rationalisation.

Despite orders by Deputy Commissioner M.P. Mullai Muhilan, owners of the 300-odd private city buses are yet to share feed of the GPS devices of their buses with Mangaluru Smart City Limited’s (MSCL) Transport Management System, that can help commuters track movement of buses on their route.

Presiding over the District Road Transport Authority meeting on November 5, Mr. Muhilan said it is mandatory for city buses to keep their GPS devices on while they are on city bus routes. If the GPS devices are switched off, then it will be considered as violation of permit condition. He asked bus owners to share the GPS feed of their vehicles with MSCL’s Transport Management System. This system will help district administration in rationlising bus routes. MSCL’s Transport Management System should be up and running by end of November, the DC had said.

Nearly a month since the end of deadline, bus owners are yet to share GPS feed with MSCL.

Shridhar K. Mallad, Mangaluru Road Transport Officer (RTO), who is member-secretary of District RTA, said the transport department has made it mandatory for goods vehicle and public vehicles to install vehicle location tracking device (VLTD) and a panic button. Nearly 700 buses and other vehicles operating in Mangaluru have already installed VLTD and vehicle movements are being tracked from Bengaluru.

Fitness certificates to good vehicles and public vehicles is issued by the department only if VLTD and panic button is installed “I will hold meeting shortly with bus owners and discuss about sharing feed of GPS and VLTD with MSCL,” Mr. Mallad told The Hindu.

It was in 2019 that Dakshina Kannada Bus Owners Association launched ‘Chalo’ app to help people track movement of buses on their routes. This app failed to click as most of the buses kept their GPS devices off while on city roads. Subsequently, the MSCL launched Transport Management System in April 2021 and it sought GPS feed form city bus operators. “We are yet to hear from the bus owners on sharing of GPS feed,” said an official from MSCL overseeing operation of Transport Managment System.

Aziz Parthipady, the President of the Association, said city bus owners are willing to share GPS feed with MSCL. “We are waiting for meeting with the RTO. We will act as per RTO’s directions,” Mr. Parthipady said.