Free WiFi, GPS soon in Kochi’s low-floor buses

Kochi: The low-floor AC buses of the Kerala Urban Road Transport Corporation (KURTC) plying through the Kochi city and nearby areas would soon offer facilities like free Wi-Fi and GPS system, thanks to the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd.

“Yes,  we’re setting up the facilities in the buses. The GPS (global positioning system) will allow commuters to know the current status of the running buses,” said KMRL Managing Director Elias George.

Earlier, the Metro officials  had held a meeting with their KSRTC counterparts  when it was agreed to deploy the AC low-floor buses as feeder services of the Kochi Metro once it starts operation by next year.

The GPS and Wi-Fi services have already been set up in two AC buses--Alappuzha-Infopark and the Kottayam-Ernakulam on a trial basis.

“We’ve facilitated free uninterrupted Wi-Fi services in these buses  using Wi-Fi router with eight SIM cards. The GPS service will also be enabled in a week. If successful, we’ll install the services in all the low-floor buses plying through the city and areas like Vytilla,” a KMRL spokesperson said.

When the  GPS system is installed, commuters can locate the buses, know details like vacant seats while the officials can track the bus speed. A GPS control room will also be set up for linking the buses with the GPS system.

“With the additional facilities , more commuters will prefer to travel  by the low-floor  AC services. The two buses are now a hit and are running fully-packed with commuters,” a KURTCofficial said.

“We can access  uninterrupted Wi-Fi service which helps us  do a little bit of office work in the bus itself, provided you get a seat first,” said Parvathy Nair, a native of Kutiatode and a techie who daily travels by the Alappuzha-Infopark bus service.