Pune: The Regional Transport Office (RTO) Pune, will be carrying out physical inspection of commercial vehicles to ensure that panic button and location tracker is installed. It is mandatory for all public service vehicles except two-wheelers, autorickshaws and e-rickshaws to install panic buttons and location trackers.
The functioning and connectivity to the Transport Department’s portal Vahan 4.0 is still not in its hands due to a technical fault and was proving to be a hindrance in smooth functioning since January 1.
“From Saturday, we have started registering the commercial vehicles by physically ensuring that a panic button and tracking device of the specification provided under Automotive Industry Standards 140 have been installed. On Day 1, we could register about 35 taxis and 5 buses,” said Vinod Sagre, a senior RTO official.
Fault in Vahan 4.0
Deputy RTO Sanjay Raut said, “BSNL has developed national vehicle tracking portal to enable all RTOs to check compliance and issue certificates. The portal has been integrated with the Transport Department’s Vahan 4.0 portal. However, due to technical issues, sellers and installers of the requisite devices, namely panic button and tracking system, are not able to access the portal to feed the unique ID of the tracking device into Vahan system.”
“As this was affecting registration of the new commercial vehicles, the State Transport decided to allow the RTOs across the State to continue with the registration of these vehicles by physically ensuring its compliance. This has been done to avoid inconvenience to the vehicle owner,” Raut said.
“Once the details are integrated, the State can monitor vehicle location, get overspending alerts and emergency notification when passengers press panic button (emergency button),” he said.
Older vehicles exempted