Nihar Takkar

BENGALURU: At a time when companies are introducing algorithms to grow their profit margins exponentially, BMTC has turned away a teenager, whose app providing real-time information on bus services was a raging hit among commuters.

Nihar Thakkar’s app — Bengaluru buses: track BMTC buses in real time — came handy for several commuters since its launch two years ago. Loss-making entity Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation , however, was not impressed. Despite over one lakh downloads and real-time tracking, BMTC has blocked the 15-year-old from accessing service data, forcing Thakkar to remove the app from Google Play Store.

TOI had carried a report ‘Teen’s bus-tracking app a hit among Bengaluru commuters’ on August 4, 2018. Following the report, BMTC officials invited him to their head office in Shantinagar to learn how to improve their own app. After finding out about his user access to BMTC data server, officials blocked it. This forced Thakkar to pull out his app from Play Store. Now, commuters are back struggling with the glitch-ridden in-house BMTC app, which cannot accurately tell when the bus arrives on their route.

BMTC not ready to share real-time data

Despite several rounds of debates, BMTC is yet to share its real-time data with other transit app developers. If the utility had done so, as is the case in many other foreign cities, it would have helped transit firms come up with various apps with information.

When Nihar Thakkar, the 15-year-old homeschooler and a resident of Doddanekundi near Marathahalli, told BMTC their server was open and he had access to real-time bus service data, they locked it. His app, Bengaluru buses: track BMTC buses in real time, released in June 2017, was a hit among passengers. But now he has removed the app from Play Store as unavailability of real-time data has rendered it useless. “Every day, around 25,000 people were using my app. I had a discussion with BMTC officials where they asked me how I accessed the real-time data. After I revealed the server was open, they locked it with a password,” he said.

The teenager developed the app after realising that the BMTC app was not providing accurate info. “My app was giving regular, accurate routes and timings. Passengers are now emailing me to know why I removed the app,” Nihar said. “I’am ready to work with BMTC to improve its app, free of cost. The BMTC app is slow, often crashes, takes time to load and provides inaccurate time. It’s not userfriendly and there is a lot of scope to improve it,” he said.

Rajesh Thakkar, the teenager’s father, said: “When we approached BMTC, they asked us to participate in the tender and take up the entire IT project. But we are not keen on commercial benefits and don’t have the resources too. We could help them come up with a better app.”

BMTC officials said their app, launched in 2016, was developed by Trimax IT Infrastructure and Services along with Globals Inc as part of its intelligent transport system project, based on GPS fitted in its 6,400-odd buses. They admitted that the app is riddled with bugs. When contacted, a senior BMTC official said they are now working on the app. “A new version will be released soon. The open data policy is still in discussion stage

Delhi has own open transit data platform

For the past few years, BMTC has been promising to implement an open data policy but it has remained on paper. Opening up data would’ve brought more passengers and revenue to BMTC. But the corporation fears that private app-based cab aggregators may misuse the data. Delhi, for instance, launched the Open Transit Data platform which provides real-time data free of cost so that it can be used by third-party app developers.

