Centre okays GPS for KSRTC buses
The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has cleared a proposal of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) seeking financial assistance of Rs 8.5 crore for installing satellite-based global positioning system (GPS) in buses.
]The GPS will help the corporation track movements of buses, especially during an emergency.
Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily told reporters here on Tuesday that Minister for Road Transport and Highways Kamal Nath informed him that the ministry had cleared the long-pending GPS installation project of KSRTC.
KSRTC, which owns 7,000 vehicles with a passenger carrying capacity of 25 lakh per day, will set up a state-of-the-art control room at its Bangalore headquarters which will monitor the buses fitted with GPS.
Sitting in the control room, a supervisor can monitor the movement of a bus on a computer screen and also the information pertaining to the speed and direction of the vehicle. The system will help the supervisor to give feedback and instructions to the bus driver.
“Initially, the corporation plans to install the GPS in 500 buses. Later, it wants to extend it to other buses,” KSRTC Managing Director Gaurav Gupta told Deccan Herald.
Meanwhile, Moily said Kamal Nath also said that his ministry proposes to lay 1,869 km of national highway in Karnataka at a cost of Rs 11,750 crore in two years.
Moily also met Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee who has promised to make provision for a 120-km new railway line between Yelahanka and Penugonda at a cost of Rs 212 crore in this year’s railway budget.
Tourism Minister Kumari Selja has assured Moily that a ropeway between Nandi Hill and Muddenahalli, birth place of Sir M Visvesvarayya, will be built soon.
