Finding BEST bus number a click away….Linah Baliga
MUMBAI: At a loss about which BEST bus to take to go to a certain destination ? Now, help is just a click away . A software , called BEST Route Finder , will help commuters find the bus numbers for the destination they plan to travel to. The software , developed by an NGO, Mumbai Environmental Social Network (MESN ), will be launched on Friday .
Chetan Temkar , co-founder and trustee of MESN , said the software is a user information system meant to help commuterseasily findbus numbersfor their destination . The software will come in handy for not just the 45 lakh
commuters who use BEST bus service daily ,but also otherswhodoknowwhatbusto board .
For cellphone users and netizens , the BEST Route Finder (beta version ) will provide a convenient search interface and deliver the best possible results . To avail of this software , commuters needto visit http :// www.mesn .org /bestbus/.
If you have an Android cellphone , then the software is available on the Android App Market as Mumbai Bus. On Blackberry , it works with Opera Mini. There may, however, be some hitches.
“We recorded GPS co-ordinates stops on routes in Mumbai which operate through these geo-coded bus stops . This helps show buses or bus stops for a desired destination,” said Rishi Aggarwal , trustee , MESN .
Ashok Datar , transport expert and trustee of MESN , said , “We appreciate high quality information systems on various transportation modes in European and Latin American cities . But we find that bus stops in Mumbai don’t make us any wiser . We have taken this small step in bridging this lacuna .”