manoj

Scheduling your Volvo ride in the city is going to be friendlier thanks to the new SMS service that is likely to be out this month.

All you have to do is send an SMS with the route number to a BMTC empowered number and you can find out where the bus is at that exact time and you can draw an estimate as to how long it will take to reach your stop. “It’s just like sending an SMS to someone you’re waiting for. The SMS message should read ‘YI’ that stands for ‘Yelli Idiya’ (‘Where are you?’),” said BMTC management and information systems manager D C Prakash.

The number and tariff for the SMS are yet to be decided. The service will be on all 33 Volvo buses on all 80 bus stops. The fleet is expected to add on 17 more by March and all these buses too will be traceable through SMS.

This service is possible thanks to the Global Positioning System (GPS) that is installed in all Volvo buses. When asked if this service could gradually be extended to all BMTC services, Prakash was non-committal.

THE ROUTES

• 2 : Majestic to JP Nagar
• 331A : Shivajinagar to ITPB
• 333P : Majestic to ITPB
• 335E : Majestic to Kadugodi
• 356 : Majestic to Electronics City
• 365 : Majestic to Bannerghatta National Park
• 500L : Banashankari to ITPBL

Source: http://epaper.timesofindia.com (Bangalore Edition)
Date Of Publish: 03-Jan-07

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