India, like many other developing nations, is undergoing rapid and large-scale change, which is inevitably creating many challenges. Perhaps the most significant transformation is the growing urbanization of the country. A very large number of people are migrating from rural to urban areas, and many parts of the country near urban centres are rapidly being swallowed up by growing cities. These trends are projected to continue for the next few decades at least.
Public administration in urban areas has been unable to cope with the rapid transformation, and a visible development deficit now pervades the cities. There are several reasons for this, the biggest being agencies acting in ‘silos’. Agencies at times lack the technological advancements and know how, and even if they do, citizens are unaware of it.
Transportation has been the one industry always suffering due to agencies acting in silos. Many a time people are unaware of better travelling options around or completely deprived of options. In a city like Mumbai, many a times a person in unaware of the transportation mode he can opt for, which is not only better, but cheaper and time saving too. In the absence of information, commuting woes continue.
Therefore, the urgent need is building a public information system platform, which not only integrates the different government agencies but also the private players providing transportation to the city. A platform which is not only provides wide range of information to the citizens, but also acts as a link between agencies and them.
So, Mumbai First has engaged Mapunity to develop a transport information system for city of Mumbai, which is called as Mumbai Transport Information System (MTIS).
MTIS is an online platform and aims to serve two distinct functions:
— Providing public information to residents of Mumbai about the different aspects of mobility in the city.
— Provide government agencies engaged in the planning and management of mobility the support that they need to strengthen their work through technology.