Panic buttons, CCTV cameras in UPSRTC buses soon

LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) may soon start installing panic buttons and CCTV cameras in all its 12,500 buses using the Nirbhaya Funds provided by the Centre to promote safety of female passengers. Six years back, the girl, after whom the fund was instituted, was brutally raped in a moving bus in Delhi. She later died.

Inching a step closer to the execution of the old plan, the UPSRTC’S Board of Directors at a meeting here on Tuesday accorded its nod for the proposal for appointing the Ernst and Young as consultant for the government-owned corporation to prepare guidelines etc for the purchase of panic buttons and CCTV cameras to be installed in all roadways buses.

“After the consultant prepares the guidelines and procedures etc, we will float tenders inviting vendors to supply the stuff,” said a senior official, adding, “Each bus will have three CCTV cameras and 5 panic buttons.

The Board also approved the proposal for appointment of the same company as consultant for preparing bidding documents etc for around 20 bus stations that the UPSRTC has decided to develop in public-private partnership mode on the pattern of the state-of-the-art Alambagh bus terminal.

The Board also cleared the proposal for construction of a shade opposite the Wave Mall near the Polytechnic crossing here for the passengers travelling to and from cities like Gorakhpur, Faizabad, Gonda and Barabanki.

Other important proposals cleared at the meeting, presided over by chairman Sanjiv Saran, were face-lifting (whitewash etc) of bus stations and depots and providing 4% dearness allowance to all theUtt ar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation employees with effect from July 1, 2016 and January 1, 2017.