The first corridor of 10.3 km length of Surat BRTS was inaugurated in January 2014 and till date it has expanded operation to 102 km. BRTS and City buses are operational on 12 routes (166 BRTS buses) and 44 routes (575 City buses) including Urban and Sub-urban areas of the city with an average daily ridership of 1.4 lacs and 1.35 lacs respectively. The City authorities have inaugurated High Mobility Corridor (HMC) of 15 km on ring road around old city area is operational with 24 bus stations and 12 buses at headway of 10 min.

BRTS for Surat is a multifaceted project which integrates land use and transport, various forms of public transport services as well as other motorized and non-motorized modes through various physical, operational and policy interventions to achieve the objective of making Surat an accessible and competitive city. Given this multi-dimensional nature of the project, anticipated impacts are numerous and some measurable and some qualitative.

City bus network was planned and made operational in such a way that BRT stations act as an interchange for both the system. This provides easy, convenient and safe travel for passengers across the city. Single ticketing system with fare integration is being developed to make travel expedient for the commuters in the city.

An integrated transit system comprising of BRT, regular urban bus, regional bus and regional rail are envisaged to deliver the feeder services to meet with the needs of people of Surat.

Intelligent Transit Management System (ITMS) is an urban transit project aimed at providing smooth, reliable, fast and affordable public transport with ease of travel and safety to the citizens of Surat along with real time monitoring of Buses, emergency vehicles and department vehicles. ITMS also provide faster incident resolution and develop a rapid response for fire and emergency services. It also includes digitization of Depot and Incidence management procedures for quick actions. ITMS project will act as parent project for any master data to these projects and information on real time will be exchange for dashboard of AFCS project. Considering technology as a tool to manage public transport system, Command and Control Center (i.e. SMAC Centre) for urban utility management has been developed which include tracking and monitoring of BRT, City and HMC buses & SMC utility vehicles. The vision of the implementing ITMS & AFCS services is providing reliable public transport service for end user and making public transport a preferred option to commute.

Automatic Fare Collection System (AFCS) is an urban transit project aimed to simplify fare policy and ability for smart and integrated pricing, decrease dwell time, and no hassle of queue for ticketing. It will also increase rider experience and ease of use for customers to promote customer self-service. It also includes QR based paper tickets, mobile app for ticketing and Surat Money card (Common Card Payment System (CCPS)).

The AFCS project has benefitted to citizen for faster ticket issuance which include the short payment time for QR ticket, no need to calculate fare, mobile ticketing to book prior ticket, boarding and alighting complete with one Tap-In & Out by Surat Money Card. Also, this will improve the operation such as automation of fare calculation and collection. The system ensures accurate and strict fare collection and reduced manual fare collection, improve on-time operation by shortening passenger boarding & alighting times and Lower equipment & operation cost by reducing cash handling amount.

Surat Money card would be enriched with many other applications in order to enhance user convenience and experience. Different type of services have been identified which include transport, health, education, nutrition, affordable housing, shop and other licenses, library, sports and recreational facilities etc. This will fulfil citizen’s expectations of multi-utilization of the card. Simultaneously it will also make available one more service delivery channel with ‘tap & go’ features. Also, there are various discount structure which are applicable on the utilization of Surat Money card for categories such as Student, Women, Differently abled, Freedom fighter, Senior citizen.

Following are the impact of the ITS system incorporated for Surat Public Transportation services.

1. Increase in passenger ridership: The public transport ridership has increased from 28,000 passengers (from inauguration) to 2,50,000 passengers in July 2019.
2. Schedule preparation according to Peak load: The city has identified passenger load during operational hours to find out the peak load with the help of ITMS and AFCS and developed different schedule for weekdays and Sunday. The schedule is developed with less headway during peak and high headway during off peak for efficient use of service.
3. Route Performance Analysis: City also analysed BRTS and City bus system at every three months to understand the route performance, vehicle utilization, dead kilometre, revenue kilometre and other parameter to improve the system performance with the help of ITS.
4. Interchange Station & Infrastructure requirement: City has identified major interchange station of BRTS with the help of OD data and improved the infrastructure such as ETM Machine, two turn stile for exit/entry with the help of OD data, requirement of staff and security guard to provide easy and convenient transport system to users.
5. Dependable Service/Reliability: About 90% schedule adherence is achieved; i.e. 90% of arrivals/ departures are on time.
6. Mode Shift: Modal shift in favour of BRTS. 80% of BRTS/City Bus users have shifted from 3-wheelers (shared auto-rickshaws), two wheelers (10%), NMT (2%).
7. User Satisfaction: BRTS got average passenger feedback rating of 9.0out of 10 and City bus 8.7 out of 10 in the quarterly surveys from its users.
8. Reduction in Paper tickets: Surat money card, M ticket, Sitilink PASS

The various departments, projects, services rendered by Surat Municipal Corporation. The contact details of SMC Offices are also available here. The content of the site is the result of collaborative effort of various departments of SMC. It is our endeavour to continue the enhancement and enrichment of this site in terms of its content, coverage, design and technology on a regular basis.