Stepping onto a Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) bus at the Shivajinagar bus stand, TNM was greeted by seven red, round buttons that read “STOP/Emergency.” Shrinivasa, the driver of the bus, had overseen the installation of these panic buttons and a Vehicle Location Tracking Device (VLTD) on his bus a mere six months ago. He asked us to watch, and pressed one of the buttons. It made a loud beep, and then, nothing. Had it been functioning properly, Shrinivasa would have soon received a call from a Command and Control centre.
A safety initiative under the Union government’s Nirbhaya Scheme, the tracking device and panic button are turning out to be rather ineffective on the ground. Although the initiative was meant to act as a lifeline for women and children in distress situations, the public do not seem to be aware of its usage.
The panic button alerts are monitored by a 30-member team at the 24/7 Command and Control centre at the Transport Department Head office in Shanthinagar. According to the mandate, whenever the control centre receives an alert, they are supposed to call the driver and ask if everything is alright.
Through our conversations with bus and cab drivers, TNM learned that the initiative is largely ineffective.
Shrinivasa recalled the instructions they received when the VLTD and the panic button were installed in the bus in January this year. “While setting it up, the BMTC officials gave instructions about the button—that it’s set up for emergencies under the Nirbhaya Scheme, and if anyone presses it, the bus drivers will receive a call asking if everything is alright. But since then, we have barely received a call back from them, maybe in one in 100 cases”
Shrinivasa added, “As time progressed, people started pressing it randomly, and so the command centre stopped calling us back.”
According to reports by the Deccan Herald and the Bangalore Mirror, the Command and Control centre receives an estimated 500-600 alerts per day. However, only an average of 18 are genuine distress calls, indicating a lack of awareness among the public.
“If a woman is feeling unsafe, they would call the women’s helpline number rather than pressing the panic button. If there is a fight aboard the bus, they call the BMTC helpline directly,” Shrinivasa added.
Mallapa and Hema, both BMTC bus conductors, also concurred. “We get a call when someone presses the button. It's not so useful, as people often press it out of curiosity. That's the reason the helpline doesn't really call back at times,” Mallapa added.
The Union government issued a notification in 2016 mandating Public Service Vehicles (PSV) to have a VLTD and one or more emergency/panic buttons to be installed and be effective from April 1, 2018. The notification excluded two-wheelers, e-rickshaws, three-wheelers, as well as PSV and other transport vehicles not requiring permits under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.
However, the dates for installation kept getting pushed. The Karnataka government set a deadline to install the device between December 1, 2023, and November 30, 2024, but according to an article by Bangalore Mirror, out of 6.04 lakh PSVs registered with the Transport Department, only 4.11% have complied and installed the device in the year 2024.
After talking to his friends who had installed the panic buttons on their cabs, Vijay, a cab driver, concluded that he would not install one. “If a person wants to commit a theft, they will do it anyway. The device is not working in any case,” he said.
Vijay first heard about the VLTD and panic buttons from the media. Mahesh, another cab driver, said that he was informed by Regional Transport Office (RTO) officials. “The RTO told us that we have to ensure that we have installed the devices in time for the yearly renewal of vehicle registration. Without this, the renewal won't happen. They come and check if everything is working.”
Shrinivasa and other BMTC drivers did not have to make any payments towards setting up the VLTD and panic button. The cab drivers told a different story, of being charged an extra amount by the RTO-approved vendors for the VLTD and panic button.
Mahesh, a cab driver, complained that the button does not even work. He pressed it in front of us—no light, no beep, no call. He explained how it was a waste of money as the cab owner had spent Rs 16,000 to install it.
The Transport Department has set the price of a VLTD at Rs 5,424, with each panic button costing Rs 325, and a maintenance fee of Rs 1,800. The number of panic buttons to be installed in the vehicles depends on the vehicle size and capacity. A five-seater cab needs to install three buttons, whereas a passenger bus with 21 seats needs seven.
A single button is supposed to cost between Rs 4,000-6,000. According to the number of seats in the vehicle, the cost of setting them up in a cab can range between Rs 11,000-16,000.
“As there is a government order, we have to install it. But RTO-approved vendors charge high prices. They charge differently depending on the size of the vehicle,” added Vijay, the cab driver.
This year, transport unions urged the Transport Department to revise the pricing structure of these tools, as it has become hard for the driver to comply with the costs.
Vijay said, “I'll install the VLTD only if the price is low. In Bengaluru, we earn very little. It takes around one hour at the peak hour to travel a mere eight kilometres. Do you think a person can drive for 12 hours? I think the minimum charge for one panic button should be less than Rs 3,000.”
TNM also reached out to Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) regarding the installation of VLTD and panic buttons on State-run buses. The approval for the same was passed in August 2023 and was implemented as a partnership programme with Dassault Systèmes, a French multinational software company.
A KSRTC official said, “So far, we have not implemented the scheme. We have received a fund from the Ministry of Road, Transport, and Highways. We are implementing this under the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) project. We have floated a tender for that, but it is yet to be implemented.”
The KSRTC official clarified that installation of the panic buttons will be done in the next three months.
TNM tried to contact the BMTC public relations officer handling the Control and Command Centre several times. Even after repeated attempts, we have not received any response from them.
BMTC helpline number: 080 2248 3777
Women helpline number: 1091, 181