'Quick response' app to address safety concerns of commuters

If all goes as per plan, passengers of city taxis and autorickshaws, need not bother much about safety. With the City traffic police launching a mobile application, ‘Quick response’ for the safety of commuters, the safety concerns of passengers will be laid to rest. The app would be launched by June.

With the help of the app, victims can send a message seeking help by just clicking a button. The proposed app can be downloaded on smartphones and the prominent feature would be a ‘warning’ button that passengers in distress could press for police assistance. An auto alert message would reach the Control Room so that the police would be able to reach the victim in minutes.

The police said that ‘Transmitter Media Panel’ will be fixed to all passenger vehicles across the city. Once the passenger gets on the vehicle they can access all details of the vehicle and the driver on their mobile phone screen with the help of the app.

 The passenger just needs to open quick response app and place the smartphone near the panel to obtain QR code which will contain all the details.

If a passenger faces any kind of trouble during one’s journey, one just needs to click the ‘warning’ button provided in the application for help. The message will immediately be passed on to the control room and the police, who will be on patrolling duty, can reach the spot in a few minutes soon after they receive the message.

According to the police, soon after the passenger obtains the QR code, details of the vehicle in which one was travelling will be sent to the control room through GPS. So, police can keep track of the vehicle’s route. Passengers should ensure that they have obtained the QR code before commencing their journey. The app is helpful during accidents and it can keep away many criminal activities such as robbery, theft among others.

The expenses for the new initiative are yet to be ascertained and a majority of the taxi and authrickshaw owners are reluctant to invest on the Transmitter Media Panel but are ready if police department takes care of the expenses. A total of 24,000 passenger autorickshaws are registered under Mysuru city commissionerate. In addition to this, Ola, Uber, Nano and many private people are running cabs. Even goods vehicles ferry passengers illegally and thus the new initiative could bring down violations, the police said.