Bengaluru: In near future, every mode of public transport that plies on Bengaluru or any other city or towns’ roads in India - buses, cabs and autorickshaws will be tracked by GPS, to ensure safety of passengers. What is more, every bus, cab and autorickshaw will be required to have cameras and an Emergency Request Button that the passenger can use in case of distress or danger.
That is part of the plan of the Union Ministry of Urban Transport & Highways to have an Intelligent Transport System (ITS) for public transport system in the country, which is safe and efficient. Experts mandated by the ministry have finalised the draft of automotive industry standards for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Requirements for Public Transport Vehicle Operation.
Over a year or so, all public road transport vehicles, buses, cars and even the autorickshaws will all be under the eye of the big brother in the sky the GPS, and its Indian little brother, NAVIC.
ITS is globally proven systems to optimize the utilization of existing transport infrastructure and improve transportation systems in terms of efficiency, quality, comfort and safety.
One of the reasons for conceiving ITS was the increasing cases of passengers being at risk in public transport. Women have been raped and molested in public transport vehicles, and the Nirbhaya case brought out the need to have safety features in all public transport vehicles.
The expert group has laid down strict parameters for the emergency button and the Vehicle Location Tracking functions which will have to be met by a single device that can be interfaced by external emergency buttons.
The device should be capable of obtaining position information using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). GNSS receiver specifications lay down that the device will be capable of operating in L and/or S band and include support for NAVIC/IRNSS (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System) for devices installed on or after April 1, 2018.
The device is required to be capable of transmitting Position, Velocity and Time (PVT data) along with heading (direction of travel) to a Backend Control Server which will be a Government authorized server.
On pressing of Emergency button, the system implementing VLT function is required to send emergency alert to the configured IP address. In the absence of GPRS network, the emergency alert will be sent as an SMS message along with vehicle location data to configured control center, to alert immediate responders.
The device will have a unique identifier for identifying the VLT device and data. The unique ID will be stored in a read only memory area so that it cannot be altered or overwritten by any person.
The unique identifier may be Vehicle Identification number or IMEI (International Mobile Station Equipment Identity) Number. It will also store/write the registration number of the vehicle in the internal nonvolatile memory.
