Lost in a new area and looking for the right buses to get you home? Need info regarding bus, train or flight ticket availability? Help is at hand, literally.
Thanks to a new initiative by two young entrepreneurs, Routes is a new dial-up service in the city wherein callers can get their local travel queries answered free-of-cost.
Apart from information on Chennai city routes, bus numbers and local train timings, Routes will give details on timings, rates and seat availability of inter-city buses, trains and domestic flights; just dial 86 95 95 95 95.
The brainchild of Mr Ashwin Kumar and Mr Bharat Somani, Routes was unveiled by Mayor Saidai Duraisamy on Tuesday.
“We ran a pilot project from April 2011 to January 2012 in Chennai to know about the need for such a service.
We got about 2,000 calls per day on our toll-free number,” said Mr Somani, who then went ahead to firm up the service through his company vTel Details.
While initial information on all city bus routes has been collated by field staff and from web sites, the company is in the process of tying-up with MTC, State Express Transport Corporation and even the city traffic police for updated news.
“We will be able to give callers route directions for Chennai for now but will extend it to other cities in the next six months,” Mr Somani said.
For bus ticket booking service, the firm claims to have tied up with 50 private bus operators in the city through five of its agents who can even deliver tickets home.
“We are looking for partners for train and flight services,” he said adding that Routes was hopeful of servicing up to 2.5 lakh callers a day in the next three years.