The installation of Global Positioning System (GPS) and panic buttons will soon be made mandatory in all public transport vehicles plying in Puducherry.
As many as 14,000 public transport vehicles will be tracked once the GPS Monitoring Center is put in place by the Transport Department.
The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) has sanctioned ₹3.25 crore to the Union Territory for establishment of the GPS Monitoring Center as per its guidelines. The funds will be used for setting up the infrastructure, development, customisation, deployment and management of State-wise Vehicle Tracking Platform for safety and enforcement as per the specification under the Nirbhaya framework.
According to A.S. Sivakumar, Transport Commissioner, “The government has finalised the System Integrator (SI) for the tracking system through tenders. The SI, expected to be ready from January, will provide back up monitoring and help with the support system for a period of two years. A sum of ₹1.35 crore sanctioned by the Centre will be retained by MORTH for Cloud and Dashboard support.”
Once the GPS Monitoring Center is up and functioning, the government is expected to come out with a notification mandating installation of GPS and panic buttons in all transport vehicles except auto-rickshaws from February 2022.
While all new vehicles registered with the RTOs in the UT from January 1, 2019 mandated to be fitted with GPS, the vehicle location tracking device and emergency button shall be retrofitted by vendors approved by MORTH for the older vehicles which were registered before January 1, 2019. The panic buttons will send out alerts upon pressing during emergencies, speeding, rash driving, and in case of harassment or misbehaviour.
According to statistics from the Transport Department, there are as many as 11,27,940 vehicles on the road in the UT, of which about 14,481 are transport vehicles. Another 11 lakh are non-transport, of which 7,70,839 are two-wheelers.
Transport department officials said that owners of private vehicles have to install the GPS devices costing from ₹8,000 on their own depending on the manufacturer.
The GPS devices will receive satellite signals triangulating data such as location, speed, travel history and driving patterns. This data can be collected by the vehicle owner as well as by the Transport department and enforcement agencies.
Officials will be able to monitor movements of transport vehicles across the UT from the control room. Motor Vehicle Inspectors and officials of Government-owned Puducherry Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) will be able to know the exact location of stage carriers and inter-State vehicles.
Mr. Sivakumar said the time enforcement, arrival and departure timings, deviation from original route and over speeding can also be checked.
