A total of 1,000 autorickshaws in the city have been fitted with the ‘Abhayam’ devices, an emergency tracking app, as part of the pilot project to provide safety to women and girls travelling in autorickshaws.
Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy launched the ‘Abhayam’ mobile app through video conference from his camp office at Tadepalli on Monday.
An alert would be sent to the Command Control Room, when a passenger presses the panic button. The police officials would send the information to the nearby patrol parties, which rush to the rescue of the girl or woman travelling in the auto.
Minister for Tourism Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao released pamphlets, brought out by the Regional Transport Authority (RTA), Visakhapatnam, and later an auto rally was organised to create awareness among the public on the app. The Minister travelled in an auto to know the functioning of the app.
District Collector V. Vinay Chand, Police Commissioner Manish Kumar Sinha, GVMC Commissioner G. Srijana, Superintendent of Police (Visakhapatnam Rural) Krishna Rao and Deputy Transport Commissioner G.C. Raja Ratnam were among those who attended.
“The device will be fitted in 25,000 autos in Visakhapatnam city and subsequently it will be installed in autos in Vijayawada and Tirupati,” the DTC told The Hindu . The tracking device will be installed in the auto and the vehicle will be given a QR code. At the time of starting the vehicle, the driver should tap his smart driving licence of the I o T device and the details of the driver would be loaded. Passengers having a smartphone can download the Abhayam mobile app from Google Playstore and register with their mobile number.
They can either scan the QR code or type the vehicle’s registration number to get the details of the driver. On confirming that the details match with that of the driver, they have to register their destination and share the trip details. When the driver takes a different route other than the one specified or misbehaves, the passenger should press the panic button. GPS tracking will be used to locate the vehicle immediately.
