State to improve bus tracking on Yatri Sathi App’s ‘Where Is My Bus’ feature

Kolkata: The state government has decided to further develop the ‘Where Is My Bus’ (WIMB) feature on the Yatri Sathi App to enable more effective real-time tracking of buses.

Senior officials of the Transport department, led by the minister Snehasis Chakraborty, held a meeting with private bus operators and concerned police officials following certain glitches in the functioning of the App. The App was launched as a pilot project on May 11 on select city routes.

Owners of two private bus routes—223 and 45—under the City Suburban Bus Service raised concerns over the potential misuse of mobile phones by drivers as the tracking system relies on a mobile device with a SIM card registered in the owner’s name. The owners also complained about high data consumption by the App, which often leads to the phone being switched off after just two trips, particularly on route 223.

Transport department officials urged bus operators to cooperate and sought time to improve the app’s performance.

“We fully support the state government’s initiatives aimed at curbing accidents. However, the way fines are being imposed, it is becoming increasingly difficult to operate buses on the roads.

We have urged the department and police to review this matter and consider reducing the fines,” said Tito Saha of City Suburban Bus Services. The transport and police control rooms receive real-time fleet data through the App, enabling detection of over-speeding, route deviations and unauthorised halts. Alerts trigger immediate follow-up actions with the bus staff.