Hyderabad: To make public transportation more secure for passengers, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has mandated vehicle location tracking (VLT) devices and emergency buttons for all public service vehicles registered after 2019. The Ministry has asked States to establish monitoring centres with central assistance to monitor public service vehicles. For old public service vehicles, States can decide an appropriate time of implementation of VLT device and panic button alerts.
Recently, the Ministry has prepared Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for VLT registration and activation in VAHAN. Accordingly, the State should enforce fitment/ functional status of device at the time of registration/permit issuance/renewal/fitness check of the vehicle in VAHAN or the respective State vehicle registration/permit system and the State monitoring system.
According to the SOP, the specified new public service vehicles will not be registered in the State, if the vehicles are not equipped with or fitted with vehicle location tracking device and one or more emergency buttons, in compliance with the CMVR 1989. It said that the unique identification number and others details of each VLT device should be uploaded on the VAHAN by the vehicle manufacturer or its authorised agency. In case of new vehicles, identification number of VLT device would be tagged to vehicles details (engine no/chassis) using their secured authenticated access.
Initially, VLT device manufacturer should get their devices tested from any of the testing agencies, which would upload the details of the VLT devices certified by them on the VAHAN database. Testing agencies should also update the status relating to the conformity of production on the VAHAN/ State registration application.
The State monitoring centre will ensure that the VLT device is connected and sending data as per communication protocol. The centre will check the panic button functionality before activation of the VLT device. It will update activation details/health status of the device in VAHAN/State registration software.
The Ministry said that the specified 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 monitoring centre.
VLT activation in old vehicles
ln case of retro-fitment in vehicles, the VLT device manufacturers or their authorised dealers should install the VLT devices in public service vehicles and register the devices along with unique identification number and other details on VAHAN and the State monitoring centre in real-time.
The VLT device manufacturers or their authorised dealers will upload the following details of VLT device on VAHAN using its secured authenticated access. The device manufacturers need to ensure that VLT has an active cellular plan with minimum two years validity for any public service vehicle less than 8 years old and one year validity for any public service vehicles older than 8 years.