Panic button on new CTU buses

CHANDIGARH: In an initiative aimed at ensuring the security of women passengers the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking CTU has introduced the panic button on new buses which will be launched soon

Updated At : 12:52 PM Jul 24, 2019 IST

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 23

In an initiative aimed at ensuring the security of women passengers, the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) has introduced the panic button on new buses, which will be launched soon.

The CTU recently purchased 31 buses for over Rs 20 crore for long routes. VP Singh Badnore, Punjab Governor-cum-UT Administrator, will flag off the buses soon. The new buses have also been fitted with dashboard cameras to record incidents happening in front of buses.

This is the first time that the CTU has made it mandatory for the manufacturer to install the panic button in buses. The panic button has been introduced on the direction of the Ministry of Road Transport, which asked all states and UTs to install the panic button in buses following a Supreme Court order.

All passenger vehicles, including taxis and buses, are to be mandatorily equipped with GPS devices and the panic button.

Uma Shankar Gupta, Director, CTU, said they were working with the STA and the police to establish a common centre, which would be connected with the panic button system.

Once a passenger presses the alert button, the Transport Department and the Police Control Room will be alerted.

Though the GPS had been installed in CTU buses, this is the first time that the panic button has been introduced in buses. Pressing it will send a message to a control room, mentioning the bus registration number and its location. The nearest police station will then be alerted for quick action.