Parking facility with space to lodge 20 buses, 330 cars, 55 bikes opened

KOLKATA: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday launched a vehicle location tracking system for easy fixing up of commercial vehicles while in transit to ensure the safety and security of the passengers and also help make a prompt intervention during accidents or similar untoward incidents.

Banerjee also inaugurated a multi-level car parking facility, christened ‘Somponno’, at Alipore, very close to Alipore Zoological Gardens with the infrastructure to accommodate 20 buses, 330 cars and 55 motorcycles. The estimated cost of the car parking facility is around Rs 50 crore.

“The vehicle location tracking system will be directly linked to the police control room and with the command centre of the state Transport department. The main purpose of this initiative is to ensure the safety of women and curb criminal activities,” Banerjee said during the inaugural programme.

Banerjee stated that the vehicles will be fitted with a “panic button” and as soon as it is pressed by any passenger, there will be a constant blink in the command centre and police control room and immediate assistance will be provided.

“If any woman falls in trouble while travelling alone then she can press the panic button installed in the vehicle and a message will be sent to the police control room and the command centre of the Transport department. With the vehicle being tracked, the nearest police station will be directed to rush to the spot immediately. Similarly, if one notices any kind of nuisance on the road then he/she too can press the panic button to alert the police,” she remarked. It will also help vehicle owners to seek assistance in case of any breakdown.

Snehasish Chakraborty, state Transport minister, said that the GPS is already installed in commercial vehicles rolled out after 2017, however, an estimated 1.60 lakh vehicles in the state do not have this tracking device. Added to this, the goods vehicles with a carrying capacity of over 3.5 tonnes will also have to install this device. The two-wheelers and three-wheelers are, however, exempted from this. “We have set a target of March 31 for all commercial vehicles to have this tracking device installed,“ Chakraborty said.

The Chief Minister said that the six-floor multi-level car parking facility named ‘Somponno’ will soon have an additional four floors.

“The Alipore Zoo, the Alipore Jail Museum, and the upcoming indoor stadium christened as Dhana Dhanya are very close to this parking space. Vehicles parked here and there would result in traffic congestion which would now be a thing of the past,“ she added.

She congratulated the Public Works Department and Transport department for completing the work well and directed PWD to expedite the work of Dhanya Dhanya indoor stadium.

She announced that the Dhana Dhanya auditorium will be inaugurated before Poila Baishakh (Bengali New Year, which falls in mid-April). Designed by Banerjee as a conch shell, she said that it will help in hosting cultural programmes, and symposiums in the area. The construction of the stadium began in December 2017 at a cost of Rs 440 crore with a seating capacity of 2,600 people.