G H Patel College of Engineering & Technology, V.
V Nagar
Department of Civil Engineering
Report on
Visit to “BRTS Office and Control Room, Ahmedabad”
Aim of Visit:
“The main aim of visit was to make students aware and to teach them about the planning process
of any urban transportation system like BRTS and to study thoroughly the monitoring system of
BRTS, Ahmedabad.”
Introduction:
The Department of Civil Engineering had organized a visit to BRTS head office, Usmanpura,
Ahmadabad on 7th of March 2018 for third year students, as a part of the elective subject, „Urban
Transportation System”. The visit was observed by 38 students accompanied by Prof. Gaurav
Gohil, Prof. Alpesh Sankhat, and Ms. Jyotika Talati.
The team departed from college campus at 9:00 Am and after an hour journey it reached the
BRTS office, where a short introduction about BRTS was given through a audio-video
presentation. After which an assistant manager of BRTS Ahmedabad interacted with the students
and shared the knowledge regarding planning, route selection, monitoring system etc of the
BRTS. He then led the team to control room where the students were briefly introduced about
the monitoring system of BRTS, surveillance, devices and technologies used and steps taken to
improve the existing system.
About BRTS Ahmedabad:
Janmarg, also known as Ahmedabad BRTS, is a bus rapid transit system in Ahmedabad, Gujarat,
India. It is operated by Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited, a subsidiary of Ahmedabad Municipal
Corporation and others. It is designed by CEPT University. It was inaugurated in October 2009.
The network expanded to 89 kilometres (55 mi) by December 2017 with daily ridership of
2,49,000 passengers. BRTS won several nation and international awards for design,
implementation and operation. It was rated Silver on BRT Standard in 2013.
The control room has access to every bus and station through GPS and 360 degrees CCTV
camera. The station can monitor behaviour of bus, acceleration, behaviour of the driver, time
lags in the actual timing. Driver can be contacted anytime and the safety is assured throughout
the journey. The BRTS platforms are equipped with RFID technology for easy on-board
boarding of passengers.
The control room is fully equipped with latest technologies, which ensures best efficiency. The
BRTS is a growing firm which is expanding as per the demand. It takes care of fare prices by
special discounts to students, blind and handicapped persons. BRTS has incredibly helped in
decreasing the pollution of the city and cut the traffic jam issues to half. In future, BRTS will be
integrated with Ahmedabad Metro, which is presently under construction and will serve as a
feeder service to Metro, The under construction Gujarat International Finance Tec-City will be
accessible through this multimodal mix of rapid transport systems.
Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited (AJL), the parent company which governs BRTS operations in
Ahmedabad, was constituted as a Special Purpose Vehicle by Ahmedabad Municipal
Corporation, Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority and Government of Gujarat. AJL
introduced automated fare collection system through smart cards for commuters.
It has a mixed fleet of air conditioned and non-air conditioned buses. It has 220 Euro
III and Euro IV-compliant diesel buses. Parts for the buses are provided by Tata Motors. These
buses are built by Chartered Speed locally according to specifications.
The system runs on Integrated Transportation Management System (IMTS) which includes
Advanced Vehicle Tracking System (AVLS), Fleet Management System (FMS), Automatic Fare
Collection System (AFCS), Passenger Information System (PIS), Passenger announcement (PA),
and Vehicle Scheduling and Dispatching (VSD). These technologies are provided by the
consortium of Vayam Technologies and GMV Innovating Solutions since 2010.
Achievements of BRTS, Ahmedabad.
National Award for “Award for Excellence in the category of Best IMTS Project – 2011”
from Government of India.
International Award for “Sustainable Transport Award – 2010” at Washington DC, United
States.
National Award for “Best Mass Transit Rapid System Project - 2009” from Government of
India.
International Award for “Outstanding Innovations in Public Transportation – 2010” from
UITP, Germany.
National Award for “Best Innovation Project Towards Improvement in Urban Mobility in the
City of Ahmedabad through New Technological Innovations in Janmarg BRTS – 2010”
from Government of India.
International Award for Design – “Daring Ambition Award and Knowledge and Research
Award – 2011” at 59th UITP World Congress, Dubai.
UITP India Political Commitment Award at 60th UITP World Congress, Geneva on 27 May
2013.
Markenomy Awards 2013 for " Best Urban Infra Mass Transport Project" from Falcom
Media at Mumbai.
Criticism:
BRTS failed to increase the number of public transport users in Ahmedabad. Before launch of
BRTS, in 2009, the number of public transport users (users of AMTS) was 8 to 8.5 lakh. After
six years of operation, in January 2016, it is found that the number of public transport users
(combined users of BRTS and AMTS) dropped to 7.5 lakh. During the same period, the number
of private vehicles in the city increased by 54%, up from 18.2 lakh to 25.10 lakh. Only 18% of
the total population of the city uses public transport.
In 2011, 42 km network of BRTS had daily average passenger traffic of 1.2 lakh which increased
only marginally to 1.32 lakh in 2016 despite expansion of network to 89 km.
In 2015, AJL spent ₹ 98 crore on operation incurring loss of ₹ 35 crore. In 2015, there are 213
buses with AJL. 80% of them are air conditioned diesel buses which has average of 1.5 km per
litre of diesel resulting in increase in air pollution. Air conditioned buses cannot be run on CNG
and they are meant to attract more passengers. Dedicated BRTS corridors causes traffic jams at
several places especially in Old Ahmedabad. As of June 2017, 186 out of 250 Buses are air
conditioned.
Images of the Visit:
Figure 1: Introduction of BRTS through Short Film Figure 2: BRTS Control Room.
Figure 3: Students and Faculty members at BRTS Ahmedabad Head Office.
