Question : Tracking of Passenger Service Vehicles

(a) the details of steps taken for tracking of passenger service vehicles using GPS for the safety of women in the country, State/UT-wise;
(b) the number of companies whose devices have been certified along with the number of devices installed in such vehicles during the last three years and the current year, State/UT-wise;
(c) whether the Government has taken any steps or has issued any guidelines to the said companies to strengthen the tracking system in vehicles; and
(d) if so, the details thereof?

THE MINISTER OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS
(SHRI NITIN JAIRAM GADKARI)

(a) Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has mandated installation of vehicle location tracking devices and emergency buttons for new public service vehicles registered on and after 1st January 2019 under rule 125H of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 vide notification GSR 1095(E) dated 28th November, 2016 and further amendments vide notifications S.O 5454 (E) dated 25th October, 2018 and GSR 808(E) dated 23rd Oct 2019.

Government of India has approved a scheme, namely “Development, Customization, Deployment and Management of State-wise vehicle tracking platform for Safety & Enforcement as per AIS 140 Specifications", in States / UTs under Nirbhaya Framework on 15th January 2020.

(b) Number of devices installed in such vehicles during the last three years and the current year, State/UT-wise are provided in the Annexure.

The Vehicle Location Tracking devices/systems are certified by Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) and International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT). The list of such certified devices can be found on their respective websites at https://www.araiindia.com/ and https://icat.in/.

(c) and (d) Automotive Industry Standard-140 has been formulated in order to standardize the specification of Vehicle Location Tracking devices and Emergency buttons across the country. The standard mainly includes the specifications for Vehicle Location Tracking device (VLTD) and vehicle tracking backend system.