Chief Minister Inaugurated Nirbhaya Command and Control Centre | 28 Sep 2023

Why In News?

On September 27, 2023, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel virtually inaugurated the Nirbhaya Command and Control Center (GPS) built by the Transport Department for the safe travel of women from his residence office.

Key Points:

  • Apart from this, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel also virtually inaugurated two other important projects of the Transport Department, in which to reduce the accidents caused by unfit vehicles, along with automated fitness centers in Raipur and Durg, monitoring of vehicles passing through various linkage routes is being done. This includes projects related to the installation of Automatic Number Plate Recognition Cameras.
  • To ensure the safety of women in passenger buses and students in school buses in Chhattisgarh, under the Nirbhaya Framework, panic buttons will be installed in all school buses and vehicles will be tracked through vehicle tracking software.
  • In case of any kind of accident or tampering in the bus due to the installation of a panic button, pressing the panic button will immediately inform the Nirbhaya Command Center and dial 112 of the police department.
  • Along with this, the location, speed etc. of the buses will also be known. With this, the buses will run at a controlled speed, which will also reduce the possibility of accidents. The control room of the GPS system has been set up in the office of Dial 112.
  • With the introduction of this system, it will be much easier for the public to deal with any kind of danger and untoward incident. At present, a total of 12 thousand buses are operating in the state, which are going to every corner of the state on different routes. Similarly, about 6000 school buses are also operating in the state. With the installation of panic buttons and GPS in buses, real-time information about the buses will be available.
  • Under the new system, the route of the school bus will also be mapped, so that if the school bus carrying children goes somewhere other than the prescribed route, an automatic alert will be received. For this, the duty of four employees will be assigned shift-wise in the control room, who will continuously monitor all the buses and inform the police department in case of emergency.
  • What is GPS?
    • Global Positioning System, i.e., GPS, is a device which, if fitted in the vehicle, can trace the location of the vehicle to a designated server. With the installation of GPS systems, criminal incidents will be curbed and information about the correct routes of buses will be available.
    • For the safety of women and children, all school buses and passenger buses of the state will be monitored through GPS equipped with panic buttons. For this, Nirbhaya Command Center has been created.
  • Police will get information as soon as panic button is pressed
    • Transport Department Commissioner Dipanshu Kabra said that the Transport Department has taken many innovative initiatives for the safety of women. To promote safe traffic of women in public transport, a vehicle tracking platform has been set up under the Nirbhaya Fund as per the instructions of the Government of India, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
    • Under the project, passenger vehicles operating in the state will be fitted with GPS and panic buttons. In case of any emergency, pressing the panic button will immediately be received by the dial 112 of the police department through the command-and-control center of the Transport Department, which will make the journey of women and children safe in passenger vehicles and aid them in case of an emergency.
  • Fitness check of vehicles will be done faster
    • In view of the increasing number of vehicles and accidents in the state, the Transport Department has established Automated Fitness Centers in Raipur and Durg. Fitness testing of more vehicles can be done in the fitness center as compared to manual tests.
    • Fitness tests of goods vehicles will be done by automated machines in the fitness center and vehicles failing the test will not be allowed to run on the road. Automated fitness centers will prove to be very helpful in ensuring fit vehicles operate on the roads and more and more vehicles can be tested in less time.
    • It is noteworthy that after Raipur and Durg, action is being taken to set up automatic fitness centers in Bilaspur, Ambikapur, Jagdalpur, Korba, Raigarh, Rajnandgaon.
  • Action will be taken against vehicles without valid documents
    • The third project launched today by the Transport Department is Automatic Number Plate Recognition Camera with e-Detection. Under the project, action will be taken against such vehicles which are not operating on the highway but are passing through various lockdown routes.
    • ANPR cameras are being installed on these lockdown routes, the information about trains received through ANPR cameras will be matched with the database of vehicle software and e-challan will be issued on trains running without valid documents.
    • For this, e-detection software has been developed in collaboration with NIC. After receiving information from National Highway toll plazas through e-detection software, challan proceedings have been started on vehicles passing without valid documents.