Adelaide, Waiting for something is somewhat very irritating. It is said that Indians are never on time. Indian Railways is illustrated vividly in this context. But now all the misconceptions will fall flat when a tracking system will take place in our mobile phones to make all the bus, trains on time with the help of an Indian student.
Yes, we are talking about Akhilesh Harsh an M.Sc. (IT) student of Carnegie Mellon University’s Adelaide campus who is a team member of Sandora system. The Sandora Prototype 1.0 is a tracking system which sends live timetable information and a Google Map showing the location of the vehicle, direct to mobile phones by SMS. Commuters can obtain the information either before their trip or while waiting at a stop.
“Waiting for a bus in India’s metropolitan cities is often a frustrating experience for the millions of people who use it and managing traffic is one of the biggest challenges. With Sandora, commuters can expect a service that will make their traveling to work more convenient and possibly quicker,” says Akhilesh.
The system works by placing a GPS-enabled device on a bus, train or tram. The device sends regular information about its location to a server. This information is then compared with the original static timetable to calculate its arrival time at a particular stop.
“As New Delhi gears up to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games, public or private companies would benefit in managing the city’s traffic if they choose to implement the Sandora system. Having a world class traffic management system will also reduce the number of cars clogging the roads,” told Om Harsh, who migrated to Australia in 1994 from Bikaner (Rajasthan) and now works for the South Australian government as a data warehouse systems administrator.
“Sandora is an easy-to-set-up cost-effective, time management tool that will reduce waiting time by providing live information for users of transport services. It can be accessed via mobile phones or the internet at little or no cost to the user,” says Phil Allan, Sandora’s team leader.
People all over the world go through very frustrating experience when they get stuck in traffic. It occurs since the time people started using their own vehicle to go one place to another. This system has many environmental and economic benefits. It will encourage people to use public transport rather than private vehicles as they will be able to take timely informed and managed transport system..
-Arun Acharya
