Safety eludes passengers as Odisha extends implementation of vehicle tracking devices again

The Odisha government once again extended the deadline for implementation of the Vehicle Location Tracking Devices (VLTD) in the State.

As per the latest reports, the State Transport Department is planning to implement it by the first week of October and it has put the blame on the consultant and the lack of proper infrastructure.

“Our consultant, BSNL has taken two more months of time. We hope we will be able to implement the VLTD on all the passenger vehicles very shortly, most probably by September last or the first week of October this year,” said Additional Transport Commissioner, Lalmohan Sethi.

“I am sure; the passengers will definitely feel safer after the implementation of VLTD. And the accidents will be minimised as well,” he said.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Odisha Transport Department had issued a notification in September 2022 saying VLTD will be implemented by April 2023. But later it extended the deadline for the same by three months, till June 30, 2023.

However, the department has again extended the deadline till October.

The objective of VLTD is to have a tracking system for continuous monitoring of public transport vehicles for better passenger safety, road safety, and better support for enforcement services. The installation of VLTD will not apply in the case of two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and e-rickshaws.

It is a GPRS-based device that will track the real-time location of the vehicle. This will also indicate the direction of the vehicle and even its speed. The device will also have a panic button for the passengers, when pressed, it will send an SOS to the nearest police station, RTO, and the owner of the vehicle. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has been pushing the states for VLTD in commercial vehicles over the last few years.

However, the commercial vehicle owners termed the VLTD as a farce equating it with the HSRP fiasco. General Secretary of Odisha Private Bus Owners Association, Debendra Sahu said, “The government has not prepared any infrastructure for VLTD yet and neither they financed us to buy the devices. It is a farce like HSRP which has failed to curb vehicle thefts after its forceful implementation.”

“If the government is at all concerned for the safety of the passengers, then it should provide us those devices free of cost to install in our vehicles,” Sahu added.

Meanwhile road safety activists, though welcomed the decision, advised the government to implement it soon. “The primary concern of both the State and the Centre is the safety of the passengers. Following the Nirbhaya rape and murder case in Delhi, the Supreme Court ordered the Centre to provide funds to States to implement VLTD in vehicles, which the Centre did. But unfortunately, the State governments have miserably failed to use that money till now,” said Road Safety Expert, Subrat Nanda.