“Strict action against VLTD manufacturers with frequently malfunctioning devices”

Kolkata: The Transport Department will take stringent action against vehicle location tracking device (VLTD) manufacturers whose devices often malfunction. The decision was taken after receiving information that the police were receiving unnecessary notifications from the Command and Control Center, which led to a compromise in the speed and effectiveness of the system.

At a recent meeting organized by the department, it was pointed out that many malfunctioning devices send automatically generated alerts, making it difficult to distinguish between real and false alerts.

Moreover, the lack of filtering of these alerts at the initial level has created a precarious situation for police who have to track errant vehicles. The Center for the Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), an agency of the Government of India under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, which has been entrusted with implementing the project, will release a list of vehicles intentionally generating false alarms.

It was decided that the Director of Transport would hold meetings with the VLTD manufacturers and instruct them to take corrective action regarding the faulty VLTD. The director also received instructions on initiating proceedings against manufacturers whose devices often fail. If the system does not correctly display the current vehicle locations, its effectiveness cannot be determined. Currently, police authorities do not have access to real-time coordinates, which often makes it difficult for them to intervene. C-DAC assured that it would enable live localization for the police on the ERSS side, allowing access as requested by the police.

Develop district-level geofencing with proper integration with ‘Suraksha Mitr’, an end-to-end public transport tracking solution designed to improve safety and law enforcement. The contact number of vehicle owners will also be updated to avoid transmission dysfunction due to incorrect contact numbers entered in the app. So far, over 1,28,000 VLTDs have been installed in vehicles of various classes.