GPS, a must for all Karnataka commercial vehicles by 2018
- All commercial vehicles in Karnataka must install GPS.
- Failure to install GPS can lead to cancellation of permission to use the vehicle for commercial purposes or transportation.
- Owners of the vehicles will bear the cost of installing GPS.
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Quoting a Karnataka Transport Department source, The Hindu, reported that installing global positioning system (GPS) on commercial vehicles including cars, autorickshaws, buses and trucks will become mandatory by the end of 2017. This will be done to bring transparency, and it will be in compliance with central government and Supreme Court directions claimed the source.
Installation of GPS is expected to help monitor mineral-laden trucks, trace illegal transportation of minerals, find stolen vehicles, get details of commercial vehicles and so on and so forth.
The government official also stated that failure to comply with this rule can lead to losing of permission for using the vehicle for commercial purposes and transportation. The firm, Delhi Integrated Multi-modal Transit System (DIMTS) that is responsible for installing GPS in Delhi’s commercial vehicles submitted the proposal for Karnataka. This company won the bidding, and it will be monitoring the functioning of the GPS devices in commercial vehicles.
The owners of the vehicles will have to get the device installed at their own cost. The source disclosed that 6,400 BMTC buses and about 2,000 KSRTC buses would have GPS device. At present, Karnataka has 16 lakh transport vehicles running on roads.
By using satellite signals, GPS device records various data including speed, location, driving pattern, travel history, etc. This data then can be accessed by the vehicle owner or transport department to keep a check on commercial vehicle’s movement. The state transport department will also set up a control room to monitor the GPS data of commercial vehicles.
