Command & Control Centre For Vehicle Location Tracking Device Opens In Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: The Command & Control Centre for Vehicle Location Tracking (VLT) device was inaugurated by Minister of Commerce & Transport and Department of Water Resources Tukuni Sahu in Bhubaneswar on Friday.

“The objective of the project is to introduce a tracking system as required for implementation of Central notifications for continuous monitoring of public transport vehicles for safety of passengers specially women, better road safety and better support for enforcement services. This will also help in keeping track of public buses running as per the permit,” the Minister said.

Usha Padhee, Principal Secretary, Commerce & Transport department said for development, management and operation of Vehicle Location Tracking (VLT) application, the State Transport Authority has signed an MoU with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

BSNL has developed, deployed, integrated and commissioned a vehicle location tracking software backend application named “Mo Yatra Suraksha” for tracking and monitoring of vehicles covered under the project. Transport Commissioner Amitabh Thakur was also present at the inaugural ceremony.

The 24X7 integrated Command and Control centre located at Bhubaneswar-II RTO new office building will use both Global Positioning System (GPS)-based vehicle tracking and the GSM/GPRS channel for triggering emergency alerts.

The common emergency toll lines, motor vehicles wing, the police control room and related enforcement units will be looped into a real-time data sharing network with the command control centre functioning as an interface for stakeholder agencies. A mobile application has also been developed for various stakeholders and users and commission Geographic Information System (GIS) map for vehicle location tracking system.

Under the Nirbhaya Scheme for women’s safety, the Central Government has made vehicle location tracking system mandatory for public transport vehicles and goods vehicles. Accordingly, amendment has been made in Central Motor Vehicle Rule 1989 for making mandatory fitment of VLT device in all public transport vehicles.

In order to standardise device throughout the country, AIS-140 Standard has been prescribed. The state government in compliance to above amendment and direction is implementing VLT application.

The Commerce and Transport department has issued a dateline for installing the VLT devices. The vehicles registered on or after January 1, 2024 will have to comply with the requirement at the time of registration. The vehicles registered on or before December 31, 2023 must instal the device by June 30, 2024, according to a release of the department.