Mapunity, Airtel and Bangalore city launch BTIS

Bangalore, June 5: Mapunity Information Services, which develops geographic information systems and services for governance and public affairs has partnered with the Bangalore City Police and Airtel Karnataka, the city's largest mobile operator, to provide a comprehensive urban traffic information system for Bangalore city.

At a ceremony held in the Vidhan Soudha in Bangalore, Phase I of the Bangalore Transport Information System, with detailed coverage in the southern and eastern parts of the city where its IT hubs are concentrated, was declared officially open to the public by the Home Minister, Shri M P Prakash.

With BTIS, real-time traffic information is deduced from the cell phone tower logs of Airtel's city-wide network, and made available to commuters to see live congestion hotspots, find directions and plan their travel routes. The entire information system is available through SMS to Airtel customers using a shortcode, and to others by dialling a ten-digit number. During the next few weeks, the system will remain free to users, while the product is rolled out to cover all neighbourhoods. This live traffic information system is the first of its kind in India. It addresses the growing need of traffic administrators for centralized traffic monitoring and control infrastructure.

Speaking at the event, Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor said that the company was excited to partner the city in using its mobile telecom network for a governance solution, and that this was a strong signal of the company's commitment to the community. Karnataka is the largest of the company's circles in the country, with 1 of every 8 customers being from the circle.

A spokeperson for Mapunity said, "BTIS gives our city traffic police an important tool with which to track traffic and implement necessary interventions to smoothen the traffic flow, in real-time. It helps them react to situations on the ground with critical decisions very quickly with the same bandwidth." She added, "Other features planned by the company include live video feeds of city traffic, tracking of public transportation vehicles, and a carpool information module".

Mapunity's focus is on capacity building using technology for the social and development sectors. Says "Dr. Ashwin Mahesh, CEO of Mapunity, "We are very happy to use our expertise for this initiative which can help alleviate Bangalore's traffic challenges. Meeting such compelling information needs in India is a thrilling effort. The 'technology by Indians' story has been a successful one, well chronicled. With Mapunity, we hope to write another chapter in this evolution, and build world class technology for Indians too.

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