AHMEDABAD: To check rapes and crimes against women, the state government has decided to arm all buses, including government and private buses with GPS tracking and panic buttons by April 1 2019. In a recent meeting between state trasnport department officials and State Traffic Branch (STB), the decision was taken to install such devices in all buses, including private travel buses.
Ostensibly, the decision was taken to prevent any “Nirbhaya rape” like incidents that took place in December 2012 in Delhi, with a girl being raped brutally inside a luxury bus. She later succumbed to injuries sparking national outrage.
According National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) figures, Ahmedabad reported 1,067 cases of rape in 2015 which rose to 1,126 in 2016. Surat recorded 502 cases of rape in 2015 which went up to 565.
“We have been directed by the government to fix GPS tracking systems along with panic buttons in all government and private travel buses so that in threatening situations a victim could press the panic button,” said an STB official.
He added, “The button will be connected to a special control room which will track the vehicle and dispatch the nearest Police Control Room (PCR) van to the spot.”
It is worth mentioning that
Gujarat has nearly 2.43 crore vehicles out of which nearly 10 %, that is more than 20 lakh vehicles are public transport vehicles. Gujarat has around 9,000 ST buses out of which 20% already have GPS tracking installed. GPS in these buses are connected with the state transport control room but are yet to be connected with the police control room, which will be set up by the STB.
Representative image
