Vehicle tracking, emergency buttons must all new transport vehicles from January 1

New Delhi: From January next year, all new transport vehicles must have Vehicle tracking, emergency buttons.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways vide notification has mandated that all new public service vehicles except auto rickshaws and eRickshaws, registered on and after 1st January 2019, will have to be equipped with  Vehicle Location Tracking ( VLT )with emergency buttons, an official release said.

The VLT device manufacturers would assist in providing the back end services for monitoring. This regulation is being brought in to ensure safety of passengers especially women, it added.

The Ministry has also notified the operational procedure for implementation of VLT cum Emergency buttons. The State or Union Territories are required to ensure execution of this order and check fitment and functional status of the VLT device in the public service vehicles at the time of checking of the vehicles for fitness certification.

The details of each VLT device will be uploaded on the VAHAN database by the VLT device manufacturer using its secured authenticated access. The VLT device manufacturers or their authorised dealers will  install the VLT devices in public service vehicles and register the devices along with details of vehicle on the corresponding backend systems in real-time.

The public service vehicle owners have to ensure that the VLT devices installed in their vehicles are in working condition and regularly send required data to the corresponding back end system through cellular connectivity.

VLT device manufacturers will get their devices tested for conformity of production every year after the first certification, from the testing agencies.