TV
The State Transport Authority (STA) has urged the Odisha government to extend deadline for fitment of vehicle location tracking devices (VLTD) and panic buttons in commercial and passenger vehicles.
Earlier, the state government had decided to make panic button and vehicle location tracking device (VLTD) mandatory in all commercial and passenger vehicles plying in the state from October 1.
STA Joint Commissioner, Dipti Ranjan Patra said that the decision to extend deadline has been suggested as there are no adequate number of required devices.
“Centre has started the process and as per the decision, the state government’s server will be hosted on NIC portal. BSNL has been given responsibility to develop the application,” said Patra.
Patra further informed that the backend application and command control room has been set up. SOP has been prepared to test the devices and the problems were identified during configuration mode.
“Only one device manufacture is active and there are not enough devices available in the market. We have requested the Odisha government to extend the deadline. At present, we need around 3.5 lakh to 4 lakh devices in the state for old and new vehicles including ambulances, trucks, buses, school buses and others,” said Patra.
Patra said that not only Odisha, several other states are also facing similar issues due to lack of availability of the requisite devices. On an average, there is demand of around 20,000 to 25,000 devices per month.
The first message from the device will be sent to the command control centre, vehicle owner and the message will be transmitted to police and emergency responders in case of any emergency situation, Patra added.
At present only one institution is registered in the state for the vehicle location tracking devices (VLTD) and panic buttons. A workshop has been conducted for the interested manufacturers for empanelment.
