The department has recently set up a Central Monitoring Control Room, which though functional is yet to be inaugurated, for real-time tracking of vehicles and receiving passenger complaints
The Delhi government's transport department has got over 20,000 requests to install GPS in auto-rickshaws in past one week. The department had earlier extended the deadline to install fully-functional Global Positioning System (GPS) devices aboard passenger-carrying vehicles to Feb 28 from the previous February 15. It had warned crackdown on defaulters from March 1 onwards.
According to officials, till Feb 3, only 31,000 autorickshaws had installed a functioning GPS. However, by Feb 11, the number increased to 50,092. Besides, auto-rickshaws, cluster buses, school buses, taxis and maxi cabs, among others are also being tracked. However, the government is yet to install GPS in state-run Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses.
"It was an overwhelming response that we received. We had been after them for a year. However, now that we have started tracking PSVs, they do not want to get penalised. Also, there was a genuine issue of SIMs for the GPS devices for which we had organised camps in all our regional offices as far as Burari, which helped more auto drivers to turn up," said a senior officer.
There are over 90,000 auto-rickshaws plying in the city.
The department has recently set up a Central Monitoring Control Room, which though functional is yet to be inaugurated, for real-time tracking of vehicles and receiving passenger complaints.
It is a centralised system which connects and has data from all Regional Transport Offices (RTO) in the city.
"We have started live-tracking of all PSVs from morning till 10 pm. We will start night-tracking soon. At present, we have got staff working in two shifts. We are recruiting more staff for the same," the officer said.
The move to make all public vehicles GPS-enabled has come after a number of instances of crime against women have been reported as well as to strengthen the crumbling transport infrastructure in Delhi.
The control room will also be able to track and record offences being made by the vehicles, as the details of all PSVs will be linked to the system.
The Delhi High Court had in 2016 asked the government to frame a uniform policy to regulate cab aggregators including the base fare, not allowing surge-pricing and GPS-tracking of these vehicles, among others.
HIGH COURT ROLE
- The Delhi High Court had in 2016 asked the government to frame a uniform policy to regulate cab aggregators.
- The directive called for regulation on the base fare, not allowing surge-pricing and GPS-tracking of these vehicles, among others.
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