The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Highway patrols to be fitted with GPRS devices

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Friday, Jul 11, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Highway patrols to be fitted with GPRS devices

M. Dinesh Varma

Chennai Telephones and State Traffic Planning Cell sign agreement

CHENNAI: BSNL Chennai Telephones has tied up with the police department to equip highway patrols with GPRS/GPS devices that will help to enhance response to emergencies.

Under an agreement between Chennai Telephones and the State Traffic Planning Cell (STPC) of the Tamil Nadu Police, 126 patrol vehicles will be fitted with GPRS-based vehicle tracking solutions.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in the presence of Director-General of Police K.P. Jain and Chennai Telephones Chief General Manager M. P. Velusamy.

The control room that will track the movement of patrol vehicles will be located in the office of the Additional Director-General of Police, STPC.

Digital map

A GPS-based Geographic Information System will recreate a digital map of the highway grid across the State, along with a constellation of dots, to identify where the patrol vehicles are positioned.

“The facility will help the police instantly track down which vehicle is nearest to a site of emergency and reach help to that point,” a BSNL official told The Hindu. Chennai Telephones estimates that it will take at least one month for the facility to be commissioned.

The department will also release two pre-defined numbers to facilitate communication between patrol vehicles and the control room. BSNL’s network of base transceiver stations across the State will facilitate seamless connectivity between the control room and vehicles, the official said.

The plasma monitor in the control room will update the highway map every 30 seconds. The settings can also be changed to refresh every two minutes.

Chennai Telephones conceived the project as a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative to contribute to road safety.

The GPRS/GPS facility for highway patrols also ties in with the State’s Road Safety Policy aimed at achieving a 20 per cent reduction in fatalities and injuries by 2013, considering 2006 as the base year.

In a scenario of burgeoning vehicle population (growing at 10 per cent a year) and a static road structure, road accidents have been exacting a heavy toll of human lives year after year. It is estimated that each year, 10,000 persons are killed and several thousands more injured in road accidents.

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