Bangalore city’s ambulances and fire tenders will soon be equipped with global positioning system (GPS) devices and other gadgets which will enable them to get green signals everywhere they go. A pilot project, started with two junctions and three ambulances will soon be scaled to include all 80 fire tenders and the 108 ambulances present in the city and surrounding areas.
At a demonstration of the new technology which was held on Tuesday, Dr Karthikeyan, former director of CBI said, “Nearly 18,000 patients every year can be saved from medical complications if vehicles reach hospitals faster. The chances of survival of a heart attack patient reduces from 70 per cent to seven per cent within four minutes,” he said, at Sadashivnagar police station.
Sadashivnagar Junction, along with MS Ramaiah Junction have been selected for the pilot project. A centrally managed system will receive the GPS position from the vehicle. It will then transmit this information via a secured and dedicated 2.4 Ghz radio installed at the intersections. The data will be analysed and interpreted according to the request criteria and stored for later access. The signal will also reach the traffic controller at the junction for action to be taken.
A working demonstration had also been presented to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who then recommended the system to the Police Commissioner, said Ahindra B Ganesh, MD, Vigilante Technologies, the agency implementing the project.
“There are a total of 370 signals in Bangalore. It will cost around `1 lakh to `1.5 lakh to install these systems per vehicle,” Ganesh added. The technology will provide a much needed breather to harassed ambulance drivers who spend valuable minutes trying to figure out ways to beat the city’s dreaded traffic jams. The system has already been extensively tested according to Vigilante and is being used at over one lakh intersections and over 2,800 cities across the world.