In wake of the recent Uber cab issue, the Road Transport Authority (RTA) here has proposed the State government to set up a committee to work out a centralised monitoring public transport for monitoring all passenger vehicles.
One of the suggestions in the proposal is also to make Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) tracking mandatory, said a senior official from the RTA. “However the point will be to figure out how to go about it, because there are about 1.5 lakh passenger vehicles in and around Hyderabad, and all of them will need to have GPS fixed on them,” he explained.
The proposal also includes issues like maintenance of a centralised monitoring system, if it is set up by the State government. The senior RTA official also pointed out that to bring any effective change in the current system, there needs to be a change in the Motor Vehicle (MV) Act as well. “Whatever new regulations are brought in, it must be viable to us, the driver and vehicle owner as well,” he mentioned.
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About Uber and other online services, the RTA official said that the problem arose as it was out of the ambit of the RTA and comes under the cyber law. “Not just Uber, but many other online services exist in trading especially, which do not fall under that particular business or department or law it pertains to, and the internet laws. That is why there must be a change in the present laws including the MV Act,” he opined.
The senior official said that meetings have already been held with the police and cab drivers to chalk out the guidelines.
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As a start, the police department has asked the RTA to share all fingerprint data of license holders in the State for the safety of passengers and to conduct background checks. “They want to make a database as well, in order to check if any license holder is involved in a criminal case,” said the official.