KSRTC to launch safety app for women commuters in Mysuru

Soon, women travelling by Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation’s (KSRTC) buses in Mysuru can alert the KSRTC’s control room for rescue in case of an emergency.

On May 31, the KSRTC will launch an app on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in Mysuru city which enables passengers to send rescue alerts by using ‘women safety’ feature provided in the app.

The app will be launched by the World Bank delegates during the two-day knowledge exchange workshop organised by the KSRTC in Mysuru from May 30.

Around 30 to 40 representatives from the state transport corporations across the country will also take part in the event.

Rajender Kumar Kataria, Managing Director, KSRTC told Deccan Herald that he himself has tested the safety feature of the app on his smart phone and it worked perfectly. “The app is currently under test as comments from the experts have been sought to further improve it,” he said.

According to Kataria, when a passenger presses the panic feature on the app, it sends the location of the passenger along with the contact number of the passenger to the control room.

The staff at the control room in turn could contact the bus crew to look into the issue. If the issue is serious in nature then the staff will ask the police station concerned to act.
Kataria has requested the police department to depute a constable in the control room of the KSRTC so that rescue alerts can be attended quickly as cops have a  better knowledge to tackle such situations.

Passengers can track real time information of KSRTC buses like arrival time, location of buses. Information on bus service to important tourist places in Mysore is also available on it.

The app has been developed by a group of students from a private engineering college in Mysuru. The KSRTC had recently invited students under ‘appathon’ programme to create an app for the ITS. The BMTC is also preparing to launch a similar app in the coming months.
DH News Service