Traffic congestion in Russia’s Winter Olympic city, Sochi, is being eased slightly with the use of the country’s new GLONASS navigation system.

Russia’s answer to the GPS system will be fully operational before 2010, but commuter buses in Sochi are getting it early to help navigate through the city’s increasingly heavy traffic.

Drivers say they are happy there’s no more need to use a microphone to name stations, now it's done automatically by means of the satellite system.

Virtual tours may become a useful option in a city that stretches for 150 kilometres along the Black Sea coast.

But the system also has a different purpose. As a two-way link to each bus, it helps traffic controllers establish the vehicle's location, its speed and fuel consumption. So in case of serious traffic jams the buses can be easily redirected.

The Sochi commuter bus tracking network utilizes both the U.S. GPS and the Russian GLONASS navigation systems.

Designed for guiding soviet strategic missiles, GLONASS was launched in 1982. For a long time it was used only for military purposes. It's expected that there will be up to 24 satellites in the system by the year 2010.