In historic first, Namma Metro & BMTC open up their data to help public transport users in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: For the first time, Namma Metro and the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) have opened up their data to facilitate new commuting solutions to overcome the city's notorious traffic snarls.

With this, Bengaluru joins global cities like London, New York, Bogotá, Helsinki and New Delhi where the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) is available for sharing information such as routes, stops, schedules and fares in a structured format.

The GTFS is a standardised format for public transport schedules and associated geographic information. It enables transport agencies, developers and mobility enterprises to build a variety of applications, from trip planners to integrated ticketing solutions. GTFS data supports real-time feeds, allowing for dynamic information like delays, service disruptions and vehicle positions to be shared in real-time.

The BMTC and the BMRCL opened up their data as part of the 'Enroute: A Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) Challenge', which was launched in June with a call for innovative public transport solutions.

The challenge was instituted by Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India (MBRDI), WRI India and Villgro in partnership with the BMTC, the BMRCL, the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) and the Department of Electronics, IT/BT and S&T.

On Thursday, Tummoc and Namma Yatri were declared winners of the challenge. They will receive seed funding from MBRDI to leverage the GTFS data from the BMTC and the BMRCL and develop MaaS solutions to encourage more people to use public transport in Bengaluru. The solutions are expected to be piloted by December 2024, according to a news release.

Tummoc, which offers the BMTC's daily and monthly passes on its ticketing app, will integrate journey planning, real-time data and public transport ticketing in Bengaluru as part of the challenge. It will roll out a carbon savings leaderboard, tied to rewards to boost public transport, partnership with Rapido and Quickride for last-mile connectivity and bus live-tracking with crowd prediction.

Namma Yatri, Bengaluru's own homegrown ride-hailing app, will create a unified journey booking with a single QR code. It will also provide information on metro frequency, live journey tracking based on user location, smart alerts for booking last-/first-mile rides, options to change, pre-book or skip any leg of the journey.

The BMTC's Director (Information Technology) Shilpa M said: "For the first time, we are able to make BMTC data available in a global open data standard. We hope the winning enterprises can successfully integrate open data into their solutions, enhancing the reliability and convenience of multi-modal public transport to make daily commutes smoother and reliable for Namma Bengaluru."

Kalpana Kataria, Executive Director, BMRCL, said: "We are happy to provide the metro-related data to help these startups come up with useful solutions."

Srinivas Alavilli, a fellow at World Resources Institute (WRI) India, said: "Both Tummoc and Namma Yatri have great potential to increase ridership of bus and metro by making first and last mile access simpler and more reliable, nudging commuters to switch to public transport by offering rewards, creating awareness about carbon dioxide emissions etc. All of this is made possible by BMTC and BMRCL’s willingness to publish data using GTFS format on the DULT website."

Manu Saale, Managing Director and CEO, MBRDI, said: “Enroute has truly unleashed our country’s innovation potential by bringing together some of the brightest minds to enhance the mobility experience in Bengaluru. By supporting these ideas, we are investing in efficient, accessible mobility solutions that can improve urban commutes and inspire smarter, connected transport systems across the country.”

Pawan Mulukutla, Executive Director, Integrated Transport, Clean Air & Hydrogen, WRI India, said, "The Enroute challenge is a testament to the power of data-driven innovation in transforming urban mobility. We congratulate BMTC and BMRCL for taking a big step forward in opening up public transport data, and we commend DULT for hosting this data and making it accessible. This data is essential for startups to develop solutions that are deeply informed by real-world patterns and user needs. It is important to recognise the crucial role that data and research play in creating sustainable, efficient, and inclusive transport systems. We are excited to support these startups as they leverage this data to drive impactful change in Bengaluru's mobility landscape."

Ananth Aravamudan, Chief of Programmes and Strategy, Villgro Innovations Foundation, said: "The Enroute challenge is a significant step forward for Bengaluru to make transportation more accessible and sustainable. Our goal is to provide them with the necessary support to develop and implement these solutions, making public transport more convenient for citizens. By uniting key stakeholders, we aim to revolutionise how people navigate our city, making it smarter and more accessible for everyone."