Kochi Metro Rail Ltd to develop journey planner'

Kochi: Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) has decided to develop a mobile application soon that would provide commuters with travel time estimation and optional inter-transport modes like bus and boat services from a particular Metro station. "We're in the process of appointing a consultant for developing the journey planner. The agreement will be signed in a week," a senior metro official said.

The app will show running time of the metro trains, 1,500 buses including moufusil services and the water metro services. The Journey planner would provide commuters an integrated platform that includes multimode and multi-operator service information via a search engine. The application will be available for both iOS and Android users. "The application will display best options for an individual's trip once the user enters his/ her start and destination points. For instance if a commuter wants to travel to Thodupuzha from Edapally, the app will show when the next metro service will reach Vytilla and the connected moufusil or KSRTC bus service to Thodupuzha," the official said.

The application will also show the exact vehicle position and real-time service disruption alerts. Upon commencement of commercial operation, the commuters will also be aided by passenger information system at stations and bus stops, smart cards to travel in all three modes of transport (metro, road and water transport) and integrated bus time-table, among others.

"The Metro coaches too have many modern technology-aided features like the Passenger Information system which provides information such as the next stop, and further details like what all major institutions function at that place. It will aid the tourists a lot," the official said.

Metro may force 170 buses to reroute:

A total of 170 private buses, currently plying through city routes, will be rerouted once the Kochi Metro begins to chug in. As per the Comprehensive Mobility Plan readied by the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL), only 244 private buses will ply in the city routes instead of the current 414 once the Kochi Metro starts commercial operation. "However, those private bus owners who lose the city permits will be reallocated to Mofusil (long distance) permits. A total of 714 long-route permits will be allocated instead of the current 573 permits," a metro official said.

A study by the Urban Mass Transport Company (UMTC), entrusted with the preparation of the Transit Oriented Development Plan (TOD) for the proposed metro corridors in the city, found that a total of 1,390 buses are currently being operated, both KSRTC and private, in 773 routes touching the metro corridors. The KURTC and the private buses will also be deployed as feeder services in 40 identified routes.

"The cancellation and rerouting will be mostly done in the Aluva-Kochi section as of now. There is no point in operating private buses at a five-minute interval once metro train operations begin. The proposed UMTA (Urban Mass Transportation Administration) too plans to effect a cut in private buses and other hiring vehicles to woo maximum riders to the modern transport system and decongest the city," the official said. The KMRL is in the process of holding talks with representatives of city private bus operators on "financially viable" routes and feeder services.