A while back the internet was flooded with a video of a bus with a scrolling display that read Madarchod Sukheja. However, it seems that the incident has quite a backstory to it.
According to reports, the bus is owned by Sukheja Travels, owned by one Satish Sukheja and plies on the Satna-Indore route in Madhya Pradesh. Apparently, neither the driver nor Sukheja were aware of the expletive on the bus’ display till people noticed it and alerted them to it. Accordingly, Anil Kumar Pathak, the company’s manager filed a case with the Kolgawan Police Station in Satna.
So what happened?
A while back, one employee named Salman Khan was hired by Sukheja as a bus driver. However, it soon came to light that Khan had trouble driving post evenings and wore high-powered glasses. Sukheja questioned the transport department for issuing him a licence in such a condition, his licence did not show his glasses in the photograph. Subsequently Khan was offered to drive a four-wheeler instead but that didn’t pan out and after a month of employment, he was let go off. In his complaint, Pathak stated that only Khan had the password for the LED display unit for the bus in question (MP 19 P 7782) and thus it was evident that he was the one who tampered with it.
Since then, the story has gone viral over the internet with most people (including me) laughing it off as a practical joke but once knowing what the real story was, it is a little sad. It also speaks volumes about our driving licence regimes and that something must be done to rectify it. It also talks about the dangers of leaving the bus display controls open to potential misuse as they could be used for a wide variety of purposes.
Sukheja is looking at recovering ₹55,000 from Khan for a possible malfunctioning display.
In what can only be deemed a major embarrassment for the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) of Chennai, crewmembers belonging to the Chromepet Depot (CR/CW) were found to have disconnected the vehicle tracking devices and skipping interior regions in mini-bus routes. These buses, operating as “Small Bus” are generally operated as feeder services from metro, railway and bus stations to interior regions where the patronage is low.
According to a report in the Times of India, the issue came to light when residents of Chitlapakkam were unable to track the bus S100 that runs from Tambaaram to Chennai International Airport Metro Station. In May 2022, transport minister SS Sivashankar had launched the Chennai Busapp, developed in partnership with Chalo. MTC staff were reported to have disconnected the tracking devices in their bus and then skipped some regions altogether, thus leading to long waiting times. Officials of both the MTC and the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) warned the staff and even deputed officials on the buses to ensure that they did not skip any stops or routes.
This brings about an important question. What are we to do when services are being sabotaged by the staff themselves? A general warning is not good enough. There has to be serious consequences. A lack of pay or suspension without pay or even termination of employment would ideally make the best sense. At the end of the day, public transport is largely non-profitable and is funded by taxpayer money.
On another note, since MTC has brought back AC buses after a long time, maybe MTC could consider running AC mini-buses on certain routes, especially feeders for the metro.
Featured Image: MTC Small bus on Route S35 from Ashok Pillar/Ashok Nagar Metro Station to Defence Colony (Ekkattuthangal). Photo clicked in 2014 by Srikanth Ramakrishnan, available on the Wikimedia Commons.
Uber recently debuted its new Platform, Uber Movement (http://movement.uber.com) which will offer users access to its traffic data.
According to Uber’s blogpost on the same, Movement is meant to be a website that uses Uber’s data to help urban planners make informed decisions about our cities.
Now this might actually work out to be the best thing to happen to us!
Let us take Mumbai and Bengaluru as an example.
Both BEST and BMTC and an eTicketing system and an ITS with a vehicle tracker in place. With these two systems, the transco is able to:
Place the bus on a map.
Compute the number of tickets sold on different stages of different bus routes.
Superimpose the two onto a single dataset to identify where maximum passengers are and and what time. Using this data, one can come to the conclusion of time taken between two stops, and what time people are more or most likely to catch the bus.
Now, what can Uber’s data add to this dateset:
Average traffic conditions. While this can be ascertained using the Vehicle Tracking in Buses as well, Uber’s data is bound to be a little more accurate.
Alternative routes between two points. Since Uber relies on Google Maps for its navigation, it normally is able to plot multiple routes from Point A to Point B. This data can be used to launch additional bus routes.
The purpose of a Public Transport Undertaking like BEST or BMTC using Uber Movement’s data is to provide streamlined traffic flow.
Now let us take a real-world example:
Bengaluru
Building up on a previous post (Stuck in Traffic: How I Might Have Averted a Major Jam), let us assume that one would have to travel between Arekere Gate on Bannerghatta Road and the junction of 5th Main and 17th Cross in HSR Layout. As discussed earlier, there are two main routes. Traffic data from Google, Uber and BMTC’s ticket sales would be able to place things on a map. Since BMTC does not have a smart card system in place, it would be difficult to ascertain if the passengers disembarking at Jayadeva are taking a bus towards HSR Layout. If it did have a Smart Card system, or load passes onto an RFID card, this could be ascertained easily.
BMTC can then, based on traffic movements and passenger loads, introduce minibuses between Arekere and HSR Layout via Bomanahalli during peak hours.
Mumbai
Here, let us assume that one has to travel from Cadbury Junction, Thane to SEEPZ, Andheri.
Buses have two routes. Some of them like AS-422 take the Cadbury Junction-Marathon Chowk, Mulund Check Naka, Bhandup, Powai Route. Some, take the direct route by continuing on the Easter Express Highway and taking a right turn onto the Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road and then proceeding on to SEEPZ. Uber Movement can help BEST figure out when there is maximum congestion, and using its dataset on how many passengers and where they travel from and to, plan a more optimal route.
At the end of the day, Uber Movement is nothing revolutionary, it is merely Google Maps with a little more data, but more data is good for all of us.
What Uber Movement will certainly help us with is planning of land acquisition for newer transit projects, wider roads, metro lines, et al. But those are capital intensive projects. Newer bus routes would be the first step to implementing a full-scale transformation project. It will help make the city’s people smart, irrespective of whether city itself is smart or not.
BMTC’s much touted ITS is nothing but a fraud. There is a lot more to it, but if you happen to be an ardent BMTC fan, I’d suggest you read this post before defending this third rate transport corporation that needs a major revamp.
For starters, the ticket machines are the biggest problem right now. Some BMTC buses, both the regular rattletraps as well as the Volvo and Corona fleet use the older Ticketing Machines; The older Quantum Aeon machines and not the Verifone machines that Trimax has supplied. These machines are not compatible with the current system. As simple as that. As if this wasn’t enough, there are some Volvo buses where the conductor still uses the older manual ticketing system. He tears out a ticket from his bunch and gives it.
Now, coming to the crucial part:
I wanted to travel from Central Silk Board to Arekere Gate at 7.30pm. I pulled out my phone and checked the BMTC app. It showed me a 411GT Volvo with the number KA57F996 with an ETA of 12 mins. The map showed the bus at Iblur. I waited. I tracked the bus on the map. After Agara, he suddenly turned into HSR Layout, before coming out at 5th main. I had a doubt when I saw the bus with a 57F registration. After a few minutes I saw it whiz past me. A green Vayu Vajra on an ORRCA route.
I looked up the app again. It showed the next 411GT 11 minutes away. This time, the number was KA01FA1418.
Screenshot of the BMTC app showing KA01FA1418 on route 411GT
Along with this, the BMTC app shows me buses contracted to Manyata Tech Park, Bagmane Tech Park, ORRCA, etc. All the buses which a regular commuter cannot board.
Fine. I waited. I waited for 25 agonising minutes, possibly because of the traffic. Silk Board is not to blame here. It does its job well by holding up traffic so that the signals on the other side do not get overwhelmed.
The bus arrived alright, but just as I had expected, it turned out to be something else. A 500NA.
BMTC bus KA01FA1418 on route 500NA
This annoyed me to no end. Here I am wasting 40 minutes of my time, and BMTC is taking me for a ride [figuratively].
Now, listing out buses leased out, itself is misleading. For someone new to Bangalore, they simply won’t know that this bus is not meant for them. Listing out a bus as en route, but not plying that route at all, is not only misleading, but fraudulent. I’d call it a criminal waste of my time if I could.
Now, the situation wouldn’t be so bad normally, but this is Bangalore, where the state government has made life difficult for commuters in every possible way. Starting with ridiculous laws for Uber and Ola, thanks to which it is near impossible to find a cab, even a sharing/pooled one. Next, the government came up with a plan to Nationalise bus transport in the state. While I’m not really fond of all those flashy, colourful Private buses on the road that drive like Delhi’s Blueline buses, they are the lifeline for some sections of the society, mainly those going from far flung suburbs to KR Market. On top of all this, remember what a chat with a conductor revealed?
I’d like to title this as the Great Bangalore Transport Scam. Sab Mile Hue Hain.
Remember that all the data from the ITS will be freely licenced for others to tap into the API and use it for their apps. Such wrong data is just going to screw things up badly.
I hope the BMTC learns something fast. It already has a snarky reputation for not stopping at bus stops and not opening its doors when it does stop.
What can be done here?
Decentralisation is pointless. Handing BMTC over to the BBMP is as good as the GoK handling it. Both are inept, incompetent, and brazenly corrupt.
