KOCHI: The Motor Vehicles' Department carried out a survey in Kochi on Wednesday to reschedule the running time allotted to buses in the State.

The aim is to determine the average speed of buses in single-lane, double-lane and four-lane roads, said Ernakulam RTO M.N. Prabhakaran, who led the survey. As of now, running time of buses is based on the type of permits that they hold. For example, while city buses have been allotted three minutes to cover one kilometre, ordinary services have been given 2.5 minutes and limited stop ordinary services 2.25 minutes.

Kochi was selected for the survey since it has the most-congested roads in the State. Based on the findings in the survey, the Department plans to reschedule the running time allotted to buses. The running-time will be allocated depending on road conditions. This is because unlike congested city roads, the width of many other roads has improved. The running time in most places was fixed when four-lane roads were unheard of. Vehicles can move faster now through roads which are wide enough.

"We hired a 45-seater tourist bus and fitted a machine called tachograph to record parameters like the number of times brakes were applied, the optimal speed in different stretches and the driving habits of drivers. The bus was driven at the permissible speed (35 km/hr) in the city and up to 60 km/hr outside city limits. We stopped at all bus stops in the route and waited for a few seconds to assess the time taken for passengers to board and alight buses," Mr. Prabhakaran said.

The tachograph is increasingly being used by travel operators to keep track of different parameters of vehicles and the skill of drivers.

The Aluva-Edayar route was selected to assess the speed attainable through single-lane roads, the Aluva-Perumbavoor route for double-lane roads and the Aluva-Angamaly route for four-lane roads. In the city, the Kakkanad-Thevara and Aluva-Thevara stretches were selected to assess the optimal speed through congested city roads.

Traffic survey soon

Next in the agenda of the Regional Transport Office, Ernakulam, is a traffic survey in the city to ascertain, among other things, the traffic density in arterial roads and the time taken by different types of vehicles to cover a distance.

The data will be collected mainly from the Ernakulam North and South overbridges. This is because a lion's share of vehicles which ply in the city cannot escape passing through the two narrow bridges. "Focusing on the two bridges has made data collection much easier. We had planned the survey in February, but had to postpone it because of shortage of manpower. We are better placed now to carry out the survey," Mr. Prabhakaran said.

By assessing the data, RTO officials will be able to identify routes where private buses run in frequent succession and in others where there is inadequate number of services.

Issuing additional permits for private buses and autos will depend on the results of the data collected in the survey.

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