Bhubaneswar: The Odisha State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC) has bagged the Indian Express Technology Sabha Award 2020.
The award is given to the government departments for innovative use of a particular technology or a combination of technologies for the benefits to the stakeholders.
The OSRTC was chosen under Enterprise Applications Category for the award for having introduced IT solution in Depot Management System (DMS) to improve its operations and efficiency.
The objective of the system is to generate reports on a daily and monthly basis capturing the daily income, expenditure, passengers and luggage information of each trip. The system also collects other information like trip suspension, delay in arrival and departure and accident details for report generation and analysis.
“OSRTC is one of the lifelines in the transportation sector in Odisha with a fleet of nearly 462 buses. Operating such a large fleet of buses comes with its own challenges. Managing 23 depots across the state is one such challenge. Thus, OSRTC decided to introduce an IT solution for DMS in order to streamline and automate its processes thereby bringing a higher degree of efficiency and effectiveness to its operations,” said OSRTC Chief Managing Director Arun Bothra.
He further said that the Management Information System (MIS) captures all data related to daily operational activities of OSRTC’s depots and Head Office. It integrates all information on income sources, including ETM and online booking, and brings them to a single platform, thereby enhancing visibility and accessibility of data across various business divisions. “This system has already become a profit-making tool for the organization through parameter analysis,” he said.
Bothra said that virtual training programme, Bus Pathsala, are being organised during the COVID time to enhance the skills and capabilities of the employees. Experts from Germany, Hong Kong and various states of India in association with GIZ, Odisha State Directorate of Technical Education and Training, Odisha Skill Development Authority, Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors and Eicher India are taking virtual classes on passenger-centric approaches and better maintenance practices for bus operations. All officers and staff of OSRTC, including drivers, conductors and technical personnel, are attending the training programme on virtual mode from their respective locations, he added.