chennai taking a cue from chennai metro rail limited cmrl metropolitan transport corporation mtc has floated a tender to procure and install gps speakers in 500 city busesthese speakers will announce names of upcoming stops and the route destination in both tamil and english the announcements will be made 200300 metres ahead of the bus stops each of these buses will be fitted with six speakers two each at the front rear and middle one gps receiver an antenna and an audio amplifier according to bids floated by mtc managing director anbu abraham last weekthough the project was proposed in 2019 not much progress could be made because of the covid19 pandemic two years later a pilot project was launched at 50 mtc buses for six months along some prominent routes like 570 chennai mofussil bus terminus koyambedukelambakkam 101 thiruvottiyurpoonamallee and anna squarepoonamalle following the success mtc is now expanding it to 500 busesit is a nocost project for mtc and the highest bidder who will install the speakers within two months time will be allowed to generate revenue by playing advertisements between two bus stop announcements so the bidder will get to choose the routes along which they will be installing the gps speakerscommenting on it transportation activist r rengachari said it is a welcome move because it will be of great help to mtc commuters from other states who dont know tamil they need not depend on the conductor to know the names of the next stops this will definitely improve the patronage as many prefer appbased cabs autos or trains over mtc buses because of the language barrierhowever mtc should not allow the private contractor who wins the bid to choose the routes along which the speakers will be installed instead they should be fitted along buses connecting transit hubs like chennai central or egmore railway station koyambedu tambaram and poonamalle he addedmtc staff too can heave a sigh of relief as there will be lesser interruptions from passengers and instead they can focus more on issuing tickets many take advantage of the crowd during peak hours and travel without buying a ticket if speakers can help newcomers to the city we can ensure that there are no ticketless travellers said krishnan a mtc conductor