M-Indicator is a transportation related

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

lication that primarily provides information about public transportation in the cities of

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

and

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

. It contains details about 232 trains, making 3,000 daily trips through 108 stations on the city's suburban train network. It has 84,000 timetable entries. The application has been downloaded by over 1 crore users. It was created in 2010 by Sachin Teke, an IT engineer who is the founder and CEO of Mobond Software Consultancy that owns the application. The application hosts a chat on which Mumbai's 75 lakh commuters share real time information about rescheduling or cancellation of train services.

History

A news story written in January 2012 describes the application as "a little known company's mobile app". The application could then be installed on any Android and Java phone. It informs that the application developers preferred anonymity, describing themselves as "mobond.com is an organisation of enthusiastic software developers having the aim of providing free software products." Mobond being expanded as "bonding the mob". The creator informs that in the name m-Indicator, "m" stands for mobile and Mumbai, and "Indicator" for what it means.

The creator

The creator of this application, Sachin Teke is an IT engineer and an alumnus of

VJTI Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) (Marathi : ''वीरमाता जिजाबाई टेक्नॉलोजिकल इन्स्टिट्यूट)'' is a state funded college located in Mumbai, Maharashtra, In ...

of the 2006 batch, he has an MBA from

Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies is the Department of Management Studies of the University of Mumbai. The institute is named after industrialist and philanthropist, Jamnalal Bajaj. Programmes JBIMS offers full-time Masters in ...

. He began his career working for a software firm developing mobile applications. Living in

Nerul Nerul (Pronunciation: eɾuːɭ is an upmarket residential and commercial node in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Nerul is located in the Harbour Line, Trans-Harbour Lines and Nerul-Uran Line of Mumbai local train network where Kharghar a ...

, his work had him commute to SEEPZ Andheri daily, using a train between

and

Kurla Kurla (Pronunciation: uɾlaː is a neighbourhood of East Mumbai, India. It is the headquarters of the Kurla taluka of Mumbai Suburban district. The neighbourhood is named after the eponymous East Indian village that it grew out of. It falls u ...

, then a bus and after that an

auto-rickshaw An auto rickshaw is a motorized version of the pulled rickshaw or cycle rickshaw. Most have three wheels and do not tilt. They are known by many terms in various countries including auto, auto rickshaw, baby taxi, mototaxi, pigeon, jonnybee, bajaj ...

. He faced uncertainty as regards to train schedules, more so in the evening on his way back home. According to Teke, the need for a reliable schedule information system was fundamental, considering the number of commuters who travel by train, however it was not available. Teke therefore decided to create one himself, for which he quit his job in 2010.

Features

The application provides the following features; # Schedules for suburban trains, buses, metro rail, mono rail and ferries. # Information about picnic spots in the vicinity of Mumbai, hotels, hospitals and movie and drama theatres. # Posts related to jobs and rentals. # Separate chat rooms for central, western and harbour line commuters. # Real time information on upcoming suburban trains and jurisdiction areas of various police stations and availability of free

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...

at a particular station, and in case of an incident, the location and police station under whose jurisdiction it lies, the names, addresses and phone numbers to be reached in emergencies, directions and information on how cyber crimes are to be reported. # Playing of audio-visual messages from railway police. # Platform number at which a particular train will halt and position of door from which to exit. # Information on cancelled trains. # Information on whether a train is slow or fast. # Facilitation of sharing auto-rickshaw or taxi rides. # A security system for women commuters. #Still to update from November 2018 new time table of trains

References

Mobile applications {{Maharashtra transit