‘Strict action against VLTD manufactures with frequently malfunctioning devices’

Kolkata: The Transport department will take strict action against Vehicle Location Tracking Devices (VLTD) manufacturers whose devices are frequently malfunctioning. The decision was taken after it was reported that unnecessary alerts were being received by the police authorities from the Command and Control Centre which led to compromise in the speed and effectiveness of the system.

In a recent meeting held by the department, it was flagged that many of the malfunctioning devices have been sending auto-generated alerts making it difficult to distinguish between genuine and false alerts.

Moreover, non-filtering of these alerts at the initial level has resulted in a sticky situation for the police who are having to track erring vehicles. The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), which is Government of India agency under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology entrusted for the implementation of the project, will share a list of vehicles wilfully generating false alerts.

It was decided that the Transport director will hold meetings with VLTD manufacturers and direct them to take corrective measures against their faulty VLTD. The director was also given directions to initiate proceedings against the manufacturers whose devices malfunction frequently. If live locations of vehicles are not properly shown in the system, its efficacy cannot be established. At present, real-time coordinates are not available to the police authorities, often making it difficult for them to intervene. C-DAC assured that they will enable live location facility for the police at the ERSS end by enabling the access as requested by the police.

Developing district-wise geo-fencing with proper integration with the ‘Suraksha Mitr’, a comprehensive tracking solution for public transport designed for enhancing safety and enforcement. Contact number of vehicle owners will also be updated to avoid the dysfunctionality in transmission arising out of incorrect contact numbers fed into the application. More than 1,28,000 VLTD have been installed in different classes of vehicles till now.