Officials turn to Telegram to provide live tracking of Bengaluru to Airport Volvo services

Whitefield depot manager S Sathish told Indianexpress.com that initiially a WhatsApp group was started with passengers who rang up the depot for information on the route, which later helped passengers who wanted to plan their journey to the airport effectively. “We began with a WhatsApp group for the same in June this year, just a few months after February when this new route began operating, to provide real-time info to the passengers. Soon we received a positive response from hundreds of them. This led to us beginning four WhatsApp groups in quick succession as each group has the limitation to have only 256 members,” he said.

Sathish further added that the number of calls and requests to be added to the group is still on the rise which led to the formation of a group on Telegram which offers the option to add unlimited members to each group. “This would help us manage the group efficiently and to provide realtime information more effectively,” he said.

In the absence of an efficient solution to solve BMTC’s woes in maintaining their official smartphone application linked to GPS attached to buses of their fleet, this initiative has been welcomed by many.

BMTC officials added that the same is likely to be expanded to five other Volvo depots as well which operate Vayu Vajra services to Bengaluru International Airport, namely, Kempegowda Bus Station (Depot 7), Kathriguppe (Depot 13), HSR Layout (Depot 25), Hebbal (Depot 28) and KR Puram (Depot 29), in the upcoming days.

At present, KIAS 15 operates via Whitefield TTMC, Sathya Sai Hospital, ITPL, Hope Farm (towards Hoskote, Kadugodi Bridge, Bellathur, Seegehalli Gate, Khaji Sonnenahalli Gate, Budigere Cross, Grandwell, Mandur, Thirumenahalli Gate, Budigere, Manchappanahalli Gate, Singahalli, Hunasuru, Kadayarappanahalli, Chikkanahalli, and Beguru to reach Kempegowda International Airport.

With over 3000 members, the Telegram group is active with live information on buses plying on the route.

BMTC runs 16 trips daily on this route, with four buses in service for the same. While the first trip to KIA from Vydehi TTMC begins at 4.15 am, the last trip begins at 8.30 pm daily.

To get added to the Telegram group, call/leave a text on 7760991418