Public Vehicles Will Soon Be Equipped With GPS tracking

Nepal is going to implement the Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking from the ongoing financial year to effectively manage public vehicles and mitigate accidents in Nepal. GPS enables the satellite-based navigation system to find out the position of an object in the ground. The Department of Transport Management will complete the agreement once the evaluation of the tender is completed.

The chief director of the department, Gogan Bahadur Hamal, states that they are conducting the work with the goal of embedding GPS on all the public vehicles throughout the country. The IoT sensor for GPS in the public vehicles will be carried out within the ongoing financial year.

Gorkhapatra reports that a Nepali company will manage the work of embedment of GPS on public vehicles. Furthermore, they will conduct works related to software for six months and works related to hardware for another six months.

The department itself is going to test the first two to three hundred vehicles. The work, after that, will be performed as per the agreement of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The department has collaborated with ADB for the same purpose.

How will the GPS be brought into the Public Vehicle?

The people who own public transport should themselves buy the GPS hardware that will be installed in their vehicle. Its market price will be Rs. 5000-6000. Chief director Hamal additionally says that the GPS will be installed in a way in which it is interrelated with the embossed number plate. The application for the embossed number plate is already open. However, it is affected by the current situation of lockdown in Nepal.

The main purpose behind the installment of GPS is to get information about the speed, position, and location of the vehicle. For the surveillance of public vehicles around the city, the GPS method is very important. Hamal ensures that the accidents will eventually decrease in our country after the equipping of the GPS method.

The major cause of accidents is the high speed of vehicles. So, whenever any public vehicle speeds up, a message will immediately be sent to the driver as a warning to slow down. This not only provides good surveillance to the vehicles but also brings a change in the behavior of the driver. Also, if the driver doesn’t perform as they were told to, an investigation will be done.

GPS makes it easy for the people

Besides, passengers can also benefit from GPS because they can track public vehicles around them. According to their route and destination, passengers can book tickets for the vehicle. They can also find out the position and location of the vehicle.

The IoT (Internet of things) device with a GPS sensor is embedded in the Public Vehicle. Thus, it sends data regarding their location, speed, and position to the respected server. The Server can then process some data from the IoT devices and bring forth the analyzed information. Through this, passengers can find public vehicles available around them. They can also know how long to wait to get one because they can track the vehicles’ movement. This makes commuting to places easier and faster. 

Some of the schools, colleges, and Transport companies have already adopted the GPS method to keep track of their vehicles for their monitoring and safety. We can still find the GPS vehicle tracking is in limited use here in Nepal. But soon all the public vehicles around the city will have GPS tracking available. It can also control accidents, vehicle theft, and other crimes committed with the vehicles.

Before Sajha Yatayat had also launched the bus tracking functionality which was known to be based on the GPS in the driver’s smartphone. The Mero Sajha app was anticipated to feature all the public buses and their position but it is still quite limited. There is also a similar application called Letz Go, developed by RamLaxman brothers. We can hope for a plethora of features after the installation of the IoT device with a GPS sensor in the Public buses.

So, what do you think about equipping GPS in public vehicles? Let us know in the comments below.