Unified control centre to keep track of public vehicles soon

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh has initiated the process to set up a unified control and command centre to keep track of all public transport vehicles.

The move comes around 20 months after the centre issued a notification mandating fitting of Vehicle Location Tracking (VLT) devices, with emergency buttons, in all such vehicles.

For this the government is considering using the UP State Road Transport Corporation’s (UPSRTC) existing command centre that was set up under the Nirbhaya Fund for tracking the location of buses in real time.

“The government is planning to upgrade the UPSRTC’s command centre and convert it into a unified centre for also tracking other public transport vehicles falling under transport commissioner’s jurisdiction,” sources said.

Principal secretary, transport, Arvind Kumar recently visited the UPSRTC’s control and command centre and held a meeting with officials in this regard.

He said there was no point in setting up separate command centre for the transport commissioner office since one such centre was also already functional at the UPSRTC headquarters.

The unified command centre will be integrated with the UP Police’s Dial 100 service for police help to be available to a caller promptly. However, the government may have to seek the Centre’s permission to convert the UPSRTC’s command centre into a unified one because it has been set up under a separate scheme (Nirbhaya Fund), sources pointed out.

In January 2018, the union ministry of road transport and highways issued a notification making it mandatory for all public transport vehicles, including buses and taxis, to have vehicle location tracking and panic buttons to ensure safety of passengers, especially women.

As per the notification, all new public transport vehicles, except auto rickshaws and e-rickshaws, registered on or after January 2019 were to be equipped with VLT with emergency buttons while the respective states were supposed to

The government has demanded money from the centre under the Nirbhaya Fund to install panic buttons to be connected to the Dial 100 service in all the buses of UPSRTC

SOURCES, UPSRTC

notify the date by which to install VLT devices and emergency buttons in the older vehicles registered up to December 31, 2018.

UP, like many other states, has not been able to give effect to the notification for the simple reason that there is no control and command centre to monitor the movement of vehicles even if fitted with the VLT devices.

The state government, has in the meantime, sent a ₹40 crore proposal to the centre for the installation of panic buttons in all around 12,000 UPSRTC buses and replacement of the VLT devices that have outlived their utility by now.

“The government has demanded money from the centre under the Nirbhay Fund to install panic buttons to be connected to the Dial 100 service in all the buses of UPSRTC ,” sources said, adding: “The UPSRTC buses are already equipped with the VLT devices but they need to be replaced as they have outlived their life.”

The new VLT devices, as per the new guidelines by the centre, should have e-SIMs to avoid the vehicles getting tracked and located by China near its border.

“Presently, the devices installed in vehicles are those made in China,” sources said.

Kumar had a meeting with central government officials in Delhi a few weeks ago for the sanction of funds in this regard.