CHENNAI : It appears it will take a year more to have panic buttons in public transport vehicles.
The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has extended the deadline to April 1, 2019 to fit GPS-enabled panic buttons. The buttons are aimed at helping passengers get immediate police assistance during emergencies. In November 28, 2016, the Central government had amended the Central Motor Vehicles Rules mandating all public transport vehicles, like buses and cabs, to compulsorily have panic buttons to be eligible to get registered from April 1, 2018.
But since many States, including Tamil Nadu, still could not put in place a control room mechanism for alerts from panic buttons, the union ministry has now extended the deadline by an year. A notification to this effect was issued by the ministry on Saturday. “The existing infrastructure is not sufficient to link panic buttons. A proposal has been sent to the State government to set up dedicated control room to handle the alerts from panic buttons,” said a senior transport official.
Around 5,000 OLA cabs running in the city do have these panic buttons, which the cab aggregator installed a few months ago. But the buttons are useless since the State has no mechanism to monitor the alerts. “The button was installed behind the driver’s seat on top of the car. However, it was never used by any commuter,” said J Ramanujam, president of Thozhargal Car Ottunargal Amaippu Sara Thozhirsangam. Even when Express pressed the panic button, none responded.
Following the relaxation of the deadline by Centre, the state transport department has now instructed regional transport offices (RTOs) to insist only on GPS tracking device, not panic buttons. Earlier, the department had instructed RTOs not to register vehicles without panic buttons and GPS devices from April 1.
According to a transport department note, as on April 1 2016, there are as many as 2,00,462 public transport vehicles. These include 22,646 government buses, 7,861 private buses, 4,218 mini buses and 932 omni buses. Other vehicles covered under this category are call taxis, tourist taxis, school and college buses.However, autos, share autos, Tata magic share autos and e-rickshaws are not covered under this category.