GPS tracking buses to ensure students’ safety

Tirupati: In a move to ensure safety of school children, the Chittoor district administration has made it mandatory that all school buses should have GPS devices installed on them.

The GPS will also help parents adjust the time they have at their disposal in readying their children to send to the school. This would obviate the need for rushing to the school bus and missing it altogether or waiting for the bus to arrive which time the parents would have used for better purpose.

Already the Road Transport Authority (RTA) officials have been ensuring that the speed governors are fixed for all buses of educational institutions since last year and as a result no school bus had met with any accident.

In the same breath, District Collector PS Pradyumna has directed the transport department to ensure use of GPS system in all buses which provide assistance in ensuring student transportation safe and reduces parental anxiety on students’ safety.

“All the managements of educational institutions have been asked to send their vehicles to obtain fitness certificates only after installing GPS software. So far 100 vehicles out of 400 plus school buses in Tirupati region got fitness certificates as they have the GPS,” said RTO G Vivekananda Reddy.

Speaking to The Hans India, he said, by May 15 every year, the fitness period of all school buses will expire, and they should necessarily obtain fresh certificate after fulfilling the guidelines. The officials are insisting on managements to equip the buses with the software.

According to him, there are many advantages with the GPS software which can be monitored by managements, parents and police department as well. They would be able to monitor the movement of the buses in real-time by installing an app on their mobile phones. They would know the exact arrival of the bus, its location at the time of checking it and how much time it will take for it to reach the destination.

This will be particularly useful in case of emergencies which makes parents have a peace of mind over the safety of their wards. “Along with physical appearance of vehicles, foot rest height, fire extinguishers, first aid kit, driver and owner details along with route map, etc., we will also check GPS now”, said the RTO.

Speed governors which will limit the speed at 60 km per hour installed last year have to be recalibrated now and the officials will ensure whether it has been done or not. The GPS software may cost about Rs.4000 only but it has several advantages, he said.

The managements of schools and colleges can monitor their vehicles and drivers very easily now and they can even receive instant notifications and alerts with accurate details.

They along with parents can get over speeding alerts, distance travelled., “The schools will be able to monitor and save the activity of each vehicle which can be useful in tracking children if they go missing. A training programme has been conducted for all drivers of educational institution buses in April this year and created awareness to them on GPS,” the RTO said.