Panic buttons, surveillance cams on Delhi buses

The project to fit passenger safety systems on state-owned public buses will resume after it was halted by the coronavirus outbreak and the lockdowns that followed in Delhi.

New Delhi: The Delhi government on Tuesday will resume the project to fit state-owned public buses with panic buttons, CCTV cameras and global positioning system (GPS). It hopes to complete the upgrade by the end of the year, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said on Monday.

"The up-gradation of the fleet of around 5,500 old Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and Cluster buses aims to provide a safe travel experience to passengers, especially women," he said.

"The work will start from September 1 and pick up pace in the next three-four days. It will help strengthen our efforts to provide safer travel to passengers, especially women, in public transport buses," he said.

"The project was approved by the Delhi Cabinet in December last year, but the work was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic," a senior Transport Department official said.

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"Each bus will be fitted with three CCTV cameras and 10 panic buttons and GPS. The project is estimated to cost around Rs 150 crore," he said.

The GPS feature will enable the department to come up with an app-based live bus information system. The department is already working on a mobile app for contactless ticketing and the feature of tracking buses will be integrated into it, the officer said.

"Once the entire system is put in place, information on buses - location, time of arrival etc. - will be displayed on the bus stops across the city," he said.

New standard and low floor buses being procured by the Transport Department come equipped with these features.

Under the project, there is a provision for a centralised command room to control and monitor the entire system through GPS locations of the buses and footage from CCTV cameras inside them.

(PTI)