Traffic police wants GPS in call centre cabs

The Delhi Traffic Police on Tuesday instructed all the call centre cab operators to install Global Positioning System in their cabs so that their movements can be tracked. Subhendu Ray reports.

The Delhi Traffic Police on Tuesday instructed all the call centre cab operators to install Global Positioning System (GPS) in their cabs so that their movements can be tracked.

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This is for the first time the traffic police have become so stringent with this rule. Call centre cab drivers are infamous for rash driving and resultant accidents in which many people have been injured or killed.

About 1,500 call centre cabs ply on Delhi roads daily.

"We have categorically asked all call centre cab owners and operators in a meeting on Tuesday to immediately install GPS in their cabs. This will help us to prosecute the cabs that will violate traffic norms on Delhi's streets," said Ajay Chadha, Special CP (Traffic).

Deepak Ohlian, president of Business Process Industry Association of India, said: "We welcomed the recommendation of the Delhi traffic police. GPS is already installed in some of the call centre cabs and other cabs will also have this technology soon."

The GPS technology will facilitate car depots to monitor the behaviour of the driver and the vehicle, its speed, exact location on the map, vacant seats and stops on the way.

Many road accidents and mortalities are attributed to call centre cabs in Delhi. The latest incident occurred on August 18 in which a call centre cab rammed into a motorcycle on Pankha Road in Hari Nagar around midnight.

The driver of the cab, which had a UP registration number, was reportedly drunk. Both the driver and the rider of the motorcycle the cab hit were injured.

On March 7 this year, a 21-year-old, who had recently returned from the US after completing her studies, and her cousin were killed in an accident when their car collided with a call centre car in Vasant Kunj, South Delhi.

The Delhi traffic police have also restricted movement of call centre cabs during Commonwealth Games.

"We have asked the call centre cab associations to avoid two-lane roads like Mustafa Kamal Ataturk Marg, Safdarjung Road and Lodhi Road," Chadha said.