Location tracking devices, emergency buttons mandatory for new public service vehicles

Overview: The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has notified that all new public service vehicles, except auto rickshaws and e-Rickshaws, registered on and after January 1, 2019 will have to be mandatorily equipped with Vehicle Location Tracking (VLT) and Emergency Buttons.

• In case of older public service vehicles, registered up to December 31, 2018, the respective State Governments will notify the date by which these vehicles have to install Vehicle Location Tracking Device and Panic Buttons.

Operational procedure for implementation of VLT cum Emergency buttons:

• The States are required to ensure execution of this order and check fitment and functional status of the VLT device in the public service vehicles at the time of checking of the vehicles for fitness certification.
• Command and Control Centres will be setup by the State or VLT manufacturers or any other agency authorised by the State Government.
• These centres will provide interface such as state emergency response centre, the transport department or Regional Transport Offices and its designated agencies.
• These centres will also provide feed to the ‘VAHAN’ data base or the relevant data base of the State with regard to the over speeding device ‘healthstatus’.
• The details of each VLT device will be uploaded on the VAHAN database by the VLT device manufacturer using its secured authenticated access.

Roles of various stakeholders involved:

• The VLT device manufacturers or their authorised dealers will install the VLT devices in public service vehicles and register the devices along with details of vehicle on the corresponding backend systems in real-time.
• The public service vehicle owners have to ensure that the VLT devices installed in their vehicles are in working condition and regularly send required data to the corresponding backend system.
• VLT device manufacturers will get their devices tested for conformity of production every year after the first certification from the testing agencies referred to in Rule126 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989.
• The testing agencies will upload the details of the VLT devices certified by them on the VAHAN database.
• The State or Union Territories will publish Internet Protocol address (IP address) and Short Message Service Gateway (SMS gateway) details of their respective emergency response system where VLT devices will send the emergency alerts on press of emergency button.

About VAHAN:

VAHAN is a highly flexible and comprehensive system that takes care of all the activities of Vehicle Registration, leaving the Transport Department to deal with more important business issues. The software enables the processes at RTO/DTO/MLO/SDM involving vehicle registration, fitness, taxes, permits and enforcement to get computerised.

Sources: pib.