TS Govt constitutes Committee to improve safety

Hyderabad, April 21 (INN): The Telangana Government on Tuesday constituted a High Level Committed to address the issue of improvement of safety in Public Service Vehicles in Greater Hyderabad.

The Committee will decide on the proposal to appoint Delhi Integrated Multi-Model Transit System Limited, Delhi as Transaction Advisor for preparation of Detailed Project Report for installation of vehicle tracking system in passenger vehicles and setting up a Centralized Control Centre.

The eight member committee will be chaired by Secretary, TR&B Department while Transport Commissioner will be its Member & Convener. The other members will include Police Commissioners Hyderabad and Cyberabad, TSRTC Managing Director, Secretaries of Finance, IT and Women & Child Welfare Department.

The Committee will study the technical capabilities of the agency identified for consultancy as Transaction Advisor. It will also determine the terms of reference for scope of services of Transaction Advisor; Evolve suitable finance models for making the project viable; Suggest post execution operative model on how to recover recurring the cost and recommend to the Government the remuneration payable to the transaction advisor.

The Transport Commissioner, in his report to the State Government had stated that in the recent past, several crimes have been reported to have occurred against passengers, particularly women passengers while travelling in Public Service Vehicles such as Autorickshaws, Taxis and Buses. The problem is more alarming with regard to safety of women passengers. He has further stated that a total of nearly 1.91 lakh such vehicles including RTC buses are catering to the needs of travelling public in Greater Hyderabad.

The vehicular population has been increasing every year. During the last 10 years the vehicular strength of public service vehicles has increased from 79,132 to 101,212 i.e., a growth rate of 28%. The general complaints received from public relating to the passenger vehicles, especially auto rickshaws are that they are not courteous, refusal of trip, demand extra fare, tampering of fare meter, take longer route, unauthorized alteration of vehicles etc.,

The Transport Commissioner has stated that the following are the issues of concern and proposals for promoting better passenger safety in passenger transport vehicles. Issues of concern are: Ownership of vehicle is changing informally; Owners of vehicles and drivers are different; No verification of antecedents of drivers; Traffic offences and other crimes are not linked to each other; No adequate manpower for enforcement; No proper mechanism of administration and enforcement; Causes for insufficient implementation of laws and Inadequacy of existing laws.

In order to address all these problems relating to motor vehicles, drivers, passengers and enforcement machinery and to achieve transparency, a need is felt for an integrated monitoring system which provides for centralized tracking of vehicles movement using GPS technology. The beneficiaries are: More security and safety to passengers; Income of the driver increases; Owners of vehicles will also benefit and enforcement machinery will become more effective.

The Transport Commissioner also proposed to install GPS/GPRS based tracking devices in all the public service vehicles. A Centralized control room needs to be set up to track the movement of vehicles to strengthen the system of enforcement and to take deterrent action against the offenders. This system empowers all the enforcement agencies like Police and Transport. It also helps the passengers and the vehicle owners. Based on the experience in Delhi, one agency by name, Delhi Integrated Multi-Model Transit System Limited (DIMTS) is identified as an agency with the necessary skills and expertise to render necessary consultancy services for implementation of such a project.