BMTC buses to have panic buttons & tracking systems

BENGALURU: The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation ( BMTC) has chalked out an eight-point plan to make its buses safer for women.

Making use of the Rs 56.5-crore grant from the Centre's Nirbhaya Fund, the transport utility will upgrade its mobile application, which has over one lakh downloads. Two prominent features to be added in the app are a panic button (SOS alerts) and a passenger tracking system.

“The emergency button will send alert messages to three people (police, BMTC's control room and the family),“ a BMTC official said. “The other feature is a Bluetooth-based passenger tracking system. It will keep the family in the know of the passenger's travel details such as where heshe has boarded and deboarded the bus,“ the official added.

The BMTC's mobile application, which is available on Google Play Store, provides real-time information on the arrival of buses and nearest bus stands.

CCTV ON 1,000 BUSES
BMTC managing director V Ponnuraj said the Nirbhaya grant would also be used to install CCTV cameras on 1,000 buses.“We got `56.5 crore under the Nirbhaya Fund. The money will be spent on eight components, all of which are in the interest of women passengers,“ he said.

Of the 6,400 BMTC buses, about 800 buses have CCTV cameras already .The utility spent Rs 68,000 per bus on the measure. All the buses are GPSenabled and are tracked by the control room in Shantinagar.

Vinay Sreenivasa, convener, Bengaluru Bus Commuters Forum, said the corporation should run more services to decongest buses and improve lighting in bus stands.

Tara Krishnaswamy, member of Citizens for Bengaluru, suggested that the corporation sensitise its staff to handle complaints of harassment without shaming the victims.