CHENNAI: A few government buses in Tamil Nadu have been fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS)-based public information systems (PIS). Similar to those fitted on local trains, speakers fitted inside these buses will announce bus stops to passengers.In the pilot phase of the project, the setup was installed in 30 different buses operated by Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) Madurai , this week.These buses ply along key routes such as 77B (Mattuthavani to Arapalayam) and 48Y (Mattuthavani to Thirumangalam). Other buses fitted with PIS connect tourist destinations such as Meenakshi Amman Temple and Alagar Koil with various switch-over points in the city.Madurai being a tourist and religious centre, welcomes thousands of tourists and pilgrims everyday, who are not familiar with the city's routes. Amid the crowd and noise, commuters are left to seek the help of co-passengers to identify bus stops. Some even get distracted over the course of their journey and miss their stop.To ease the journey of commuters, TNSTC Madurai in association with Silicon Harvest, a private firm, fitted automated bus stop identification system with speakers in 30 buses.M Arunraja from the firm said, “We developed a GPS-based system to locate bus stops along with a pre-recorded voice announcing the stop. The bus route is mapped in to an array of latitude and longitude geo coordinates. Whenever the mapped location arrives, the system will play the pre-recorded voice segment.”He added that the announcement would be made in Tamil at least 100m before the bus stop, so that the passenger has ample time to get ready. Each unit was bought at a cost of Rs .25,000 and the firm agreed to install it for free. In return, it gained the right to broadcast advertisements through this system.

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