Google India official Peeyush Ranjan in front of the bus in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Sept. 6: A bus journey that started in 2009 from Tamil Nadu, covered 10 states and touched the lives of over 56 lakh Indians, reached the state capital today.

The Google Internet Bus is an inimitable concept by the search engine giant, Google, using a customised Internet-enabled bus that travels across towns and cities to spread awareness on the usage of Internet and its benefits.

Commenting on its successful journey, Peeyush Ranjan, the managing director (R&D) of Google India, said: “The Internet has positively touched the lives of over 100 million in India. We believe that it is a great equalising force. It has been very exciting to see people from different walks of life visit the bus and learn about what the Internet could do for them.”

The custom-designed bus has five computers with a trainer on each and one video terminal for those who wait for their turn for free-of-cost training. The Internet bus would be in Patna from September 6 to 15, wherein it would travel around various places, including Patna Junction, Gandhi Maidan and several market areas among others. Later, the bus would reach Chhapra on September 16 and would cover seven other towns of the state — Gaya, Bhagalpur, Darbhanga, Biharsharif, Ara, Katihar and Purnea. The bus would travel across these towns for 40 days from today.

The bus showcases informative content in English and Hindi. Moreover, it would also showcase how the Internet services can be used on the mobile. “We hope to create awareness about the Internet with the motive of enabling the common man to utilise the power of knowledge and information for economic prosperity,” added Ranjan.

Google has joined hands with NIIT to provide an hour-long free Internet training to the visitors of the bus in the state. Team Google claimed that the bus would reach approximately 2 lakh people during its tour in Bihar.

“Studies have proved that the share of Internet users from Indian towns with population less than 5 lakh has increased tremendously in the past few years. However, there are certain barriers such as accessibility, content and language, which are still restricting the Internet usage among the masses. Google, along with its user-friendly tools, including Google language tools, Google SMS channels and Google maps among others, come to the help of common people in such areas,” said Ranjan.