In an effort to provide safety on roads for general commuters and also to prevent misuse of vehicles, the Centre on Wednesday directed that all new vehicles registered for public use from New Year should have tracking devices and emergency buttons.

“All new public service vehicles except auto rickshaws and eRickshaws, registered on and after January 1, 2019, will have to be equipped with Vehicle Location Tracking (VLT) with emergency buttons,” the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a statement. The move has been taken keeping in mind safety of women commuters.

The notice said fixing of VLT and emergency buttons have been made mandatory via notification. “The VLT device manufacturers would assist in providing the back end services for monitoring. This regulation is being brought in to ensure safety of passengers especially women,” the Ministry said.

In case of older public service vehicles, those registered up to December 31 2018, the respective State/UT Governments will notify the date by which these vehicles have to install Vehicle Location Tracking Device and Panic Buttons. The Ministry has also sent an advisory to the States in this regard.

It has notified the operational procedure for implementation of VLT-cum- Emergency buttons. “Command and Control Centres will be set up by the State or VLT manufacturers or any other agency authorised by the State Government, and these centres will provide interface to various stakeholders such as state emergency response centre, the Transport Department or Regional Transport Offices, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and its designated agencies, device manufacturers and their authorised dealers, testing agencies besides permit holders, etc...” the statement said.

These centres will also provide feed to the VAHAN data base or the relevant data base of the state with regard to the over speeding, device health status. The details of each VLT device will be uploaded on the VAHAN database by the manufacturer, using its secured authenticated access, said the Government, adding that the manufacturers or their authorised dealers will  install the VLT devices in public service vehicles and register the devices along with details of vehicle on the corresponding back-end systems in real-time.

The public service vehicle owners have to ensure that the VLT devices installed in their vehicles are in working condition and regularly send required data to the corresponding backend system through cellular connectivity, it said. The manufacturers will get their devices tested for conformity of production every year after the first certification from the the testing agencies, it added.