How 5 Nagpur buses with AI cameras could reshape India’s public transport funding

Five buses in Nagpur just gave India a small but telling glimpse of how artificial intelligence could reshape public transport budgeting. The Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) transport department ran an AI-based system on five Aapli Buses to count passengers boarding and alighting, and the results, presented at a transport committee meeting on Tuesday, came back 97% accurate.

“The data generated through the trial was 97% accurate and will help the department improve operational efficiency and boost revenue,” said transport committee chairperson Mangala Khekre, framing the trial as proof the technology can replace guesswork in route planning and fare-revenue forecasting.

On the strength of that result, the committee approved setting up a Project Advisory Committee to guide the AI system’s implementation beyond the initial five-bus pilot, effectively greenlighting a wider rollout across the Aapli Bus fleet.

The push for better data comes against a tight financial backdrop: the committee cleared a Rs 160-crore allocation for the transport department, with ticket sales of Rs 8.32 crore in April and Rs 8.28 crore in May running well behind expenditure of Rs 20.95 crore and Rs 20.52 crore in those months.

Technology showed up elsewhere on the agenda too. Committee member Vijay Hole proposed installing digital advertising displays inside the newly inducted electric buses, an idea raised alongside separate approvals for converting 150 midi buses and 45 minibuses to CNG and for operating 91 buses across seven routes in the Nagpur Metropolitan Region Development Authority area.

[Source: Times of India] Image: Wikimedia Commons/by Rsrikanth05