Artificial Intelligence (AI) is expected to power the ailing Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) to make a turnaround in its operational efficiency by cutting down the unnecessary expense and making optimum utilisation of the fleet and its manpower.
As part of implementing digitalisation, the public utility has introduced an AI-assisted scheduling system along with an integrated command and control centre that brings all the digital services onto a single dashboard.
The AI-assisted scheduling system will decide the schedule of buses to be operated on each route and the timing based on the five-year data collected from these routes. This would prevent the bunching of buses on certain routes and make optimum use of each bus on the each route. According to Transport Minister K.B. Ganesh Kumar, the software for this has been specially developed based on the technical suggestions from the experts of the Digital University and Startup Mission.
Analyzing the traffic data and collection records, the digital interface will identify when each route is crowded, thereby reducing the number of buses on certain routes when there are fewer passengers. It will also help avoid long-distance buses running one after the other. In addition, the digital system will bring the accounts of the institution, courier services, purchase of spare parts and their distribution, budget tourism collection, rent collection from the properties of the KSRTC, etc. onto a single dashboard.
The Minister also launched various projects on Thursday, including the launching of the Integrated Command and Control Centre, the pilgrimage tourism project of the budget tourism cell, the rolling ads advertising module, the vehicle smoke testing centre, the distribution of the ‘Happy Long Life Free Travel Card’ for the cancer patients, the distribution of gift boxes for children in long-distance buses, and free cancer diagnosis for women employees of KSRTC.
The Minister also said that the KSRTC has plans to provide light foods and snacks on long-distance buses. A discussion on handing over the bus cleaning to Kudumbashree is under way and will be implemented soon. In the first phase, the pilgrimage tourism service will be started by connecting famous pilgrimage centres in the States of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The free cancer diagnosis programme is being launched for female employees of KSRTC under the leadership of oncologist Dr. Gangadharan. The next step will be to meet the cost of cancer treatment of employees through the companies’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds, the Minister added.
Published – October 30, 2025 09:30 pm IST
