CHENNAI: New public transport vehicles, including government and private school and college buses, call taxis, omni buses, tourist buses and mini buses, will not be registered in Tamil Nadu from April 1 if they are not fitted with GPS and a panic button.
In order to improve the safety of commuters using public transport, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has made it mandatory for public transport vehicles to have a vehicle location tracking device and one or more emergency buttons from April 1. To this effect, on November 28, 2016, the Centre amended section 125 G of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989.
In line with revised rules, a few days ago, the State transport department directed all Regional Transport Officers and vehicle inspectors in the State not to register new public service transport vehicles which are not equipped with GPS and panic buttons.
“Though the norms are applicable to existing public vehicles also, we are trying to enforce the revised rules first for new vehicles. We will observe the practical constraints involved in implementing the changes in new vehicles, and accordingly expand it to existing public transport vehicles,” said S Velusamy, Joint Commissioner, Transport, Tamil Nadu.
The transport department will enforce the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways’ (MoRTH) notification that made global positioning system (GPS) and panic button mandatory in all the public service vehicles.
Industry sources told Express while over 90 per cent of buses of educational institutions and omni buses in Tamil Nadu have fitted GPS trackers, they are yet to fit the panic button. “Of the total two lakh vehicles in the state, nearly 65 per cent of the vehicles do not have both the additional provisions. We will insist panic buttons when the vehicles come to RTO office fitness certificate,” said an RTO. According to a transport department official note, as on April 1, 2017, 2,00,462 vehicles were categorised as public service vehicles in Tamil Nadu. These include 22, 646 government buses, 7861 private buses, 4218 mini buses and 932 omni buses. With 1,14,082 cars, the State has 14,143 private service vehicles. In addition, 36,580 educational institutional buses are also covered under this new rules.
Welcoming the new rules, Daniel Robinson, Programme Manager of Chennai City Connect, an NGO working on transport, said the move would definitely improve the current situation in transportation. “Learning from implementation of the new policy should be tweaked for better implementation of upcoming policies,” he added. However, several Ola cab drivers said panic buttons provided in select cabs were hardly used. “Nearly 20,000 Ola and Uber cars in the city are fitted with GPS in the last two years. More than 5,000 Ola cabs also have panic button, but it is never used by any commuter,” said J Ramanujam, president of Thozhargal Car Ottunargal Amaippu Sara Thozhirsangam.
