Soon AAP Govt to launch app for easing travel woes

In a bid to make commuting in Delhi hassle-free, the Delhi Government has decided to create an integrated app that would map multiple means of transport existing in the city and would provide accurate information about them. It means that commuters in the Capital will soon get exact schedule of Metro trains, location and seat availability and arrival time of DTC buses and details required to hire auto rickshaws through a single mobile app. 

The app is part of many other initiatives being taken by the Government to streamline the public transport sector which include integrating bus, metro and auto-rickshaw services.Explaining about the app, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said commuters waiting at bus shelters can check frequency, route details, arrival time of buses on their phone through the app. 

He said the Government is testing the app and will launch it soon. It will enable users to fetch location and mobile numbers of nearest auto-rickshaws drivers.The Deputy Chief Minister said in order to make the city congestion and pollution-free, we need a better public transport system. “Keeping this in mind, we have developed a mobile application through which commuters can get details of location, seat availability and schedule of DTC and Cluster buses plying in Delhi,” he said.

Apart from launching the app, the Deputy Chief Minister said the Government is planning a series of steps to improve the bus service as well. Around 40 lakh commuters travel on 5,000 buses operated by the Delhi Transport Corporation.He said the Government has decided to buy 10,000 buses and some of them will be procured through public-private-partnership. The Government is also planning to introduce a common card which can be used in Metro, buses, auto-rickshaws to make commuting completely hassle-free, said the Deputy Chief Minister. 

Currently, 4,700 DTC buses and 1,300 buses under cluster services are operating in the city. The total number of autos is more than 84,000.

“Commuters using autos will also be able to use the Government’s application on the line of private taxi aggregators and can fetch location and mobile details of drivers,” he said.

The AAP Government has set aside Rs 5,085 crore, an increase of 23 per cent over last year, in the Budget for the transport sector and the Deputy Chief Minister said the main focus will be to improve public transport to discourage people from using private vehicles.