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Can an open-data project solve Bengaluru's traffic mess?

Can an open-data project solve Bengaluru's traffic mess?

India Today5 days ago
(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated July 28, 2025)Believe it or not, Bengaluru, with its public transport woes, has the second largest fleet of city buses in India after Delhi. Every day, 4.6 million commuters (some 30 per cent of the city's population) ride nearly 7,000 buses of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC). The BMTC aims to increase ridership by another million by next year. Expanding the fleet is one way—1,779 new electric buses will roll out by October. The other, more crucial one, involves data.advertisementFor the first time, the BMTC, and the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL), have published their transport data in a globally recognised open data standard called General Transit Feed Specification. This was part of a start-up challenge that pitted developers to build digital tools for urban mobility using this data. Last week, two city-based mobility apps, Tummoc and Namma Yatri, launched trip planning tools where passengers can access bus/metro schedules and even book rides on autorickshaws on a single platform.REAL-TIME DATA STACK
BMTC is also working on the Bengaluru Transport Stack, an open data exchange platform that enables sharing of real-time data that could kickstart an innovation ecosystem in mobility solutions. The goal is to integrate different modes of transport and, in the process, increase operational efficiency, reduce travel time and aid traffic management. Ultimately, the plan is to sync mass transport systems and first-and-last-mile connections to make travelling easier for commuters. An 11-month-old project, the stack will have real-time data from public transport providers to micro-mobility services. For India's cities choked by traffic, tech solutions based on open data is the new frontier.Subscribe to India Today Magazine- Ends
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