City Bus Staff Training Programme- Ahmedabad and Mehsana

The Center of Excellence in Urban Transport, CRDF organised staff training workshops for the frontline staff of city buses in Ahmedabad and Mehsana under the UK PACT programme’s project on ‘Strategy and Action Plan for Electrification of Public Transport and Intermediate Public Transport in Indian Cities’.

The workshops aimed to boost the communication skills of staff, enhance the sense of empathy, and service orientation towards the passengers. The sessions familiarised participants with customer needs to foster empathy for the passengers and improve customer interactions. This in turn is expected to help improve customer satisfaction leading to increased ridership and operational effectiveness in the public transportation system. The interactive sessions were planned that included ice breaking sessions, role plays, and poster competitions with a few technical presentations by experts. The technical sessions’ module divisions were designed to inculcate a sense of understanding for “paristhithi anusar response” i.e., responding based on the situation.

In Ahmedabad, the programme was supported by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and facilitated by Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA). A total of around 250 personnel of AJL and AMTS were trained in six batches between 29th August 2022 to 15th December 2022 at AMTS Training Center, Jamalpur, Ahmedabad. The participants included male and female security guards, ticketing staff, field supervisors, field officers, bouncers, and ex-servicemen. 

In Mehsana, a workshop was delivered by the project team on 4th December 2022, supported by Mehsana Nagarpalika. The training was attended by around 15 female conductors of Mehsana bus service.

Testimonials of the participants-

• “I have seen a drastic change in myself. I was a hot-headed person but now I try to be calm. I represent the city’s bus system and hence have to take care of the customers.” - Shailesh Bhai Parmar, Ticketing Staff, Ahmedabad
• “I have now become more sensitive towards differently-abled passengers and try to help out, whenever I can.” - Neeta ben, Station Guard, Ahmedabad
• “Now, I try to handle irate customers with patience and a smile – and that seems to work!” - Hemraj Makwana, Bouncer, Ahmedabad
• “The training conducted was useful and I enjoyed not just learning but the interaction with the trainers as well.”- Asha Solanki, Conductor, Mehsana
• “The learnings from the training like how to respond to people, thinking from their perspective was very useful and I will try and incorporate outside." Fateema Banu Pathan, Conductor, Mehsana
• “I enjoyed the training and also the way the trainers explained us understanding others perspective and then responding to situation.” – Hiral Thakor, Conductor, Mehsana

For more details about the project, click here.