The Delhi Transport department has floated tenders for equipping buses run by DTC and DIMTS with automatic vehicle tracking system (AVTS) and CCTV cameras for safety of passengers, especially women, officials have said. A tender in this regard last year had failed due to unavailability of suitable number of bidders, they said. “The department has reduced the minimum turnover of the bidders from Rs 500 crore to Rs 200 crore for the last three financial years to elicit a better response this time,” a government official said.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has directed the equipping of all public transport vehicles in the country with automatic vehicle tracking system and emergency buttons by March this year. The DTC and cluster buses are planned to be fitted with three internet protocol cameras each, besides AVTS and panic buttons.
“The tender was issued for equipping over 5,500 public transport buses, including around 3,900 run by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and over 1,600 cluster buses operated by the Delhi Integrated Multimodal Transit System (DIMTS) with AVTS, CCTV cameras and panic buttons,” a senior Transport department official said.
As per a Request For Proposal document of the Transport department, the last date for submission of bid was February 9. In the earlier attempt by the Transport department in November, only two bidders had come up in response to the tender, one of which was rejected on technical grounds, so, the tender was shelved because it had only one bidder on board, the official said
