Next time you are travelling alone in a cab, you can ask Delhi Police control room to look out for you.
Cabs in Delhi are being provided with a Quick Response (QR) code, which passengers can scan using Himmat app to inform police about their journey. The app was launched as a safety measure for women by the Delhi Police 2015. Passengers who do not have the app or are not carrying a smartphone can also avail the facility by sending an SMS.
The trial run for the project started on Thursday with the QR code being installed in 10 kaali-peeli taxis operating at Delhi airport. Besides the QR code, the card that will be pasted behind the driver’s seat, will also have photograph of the driver and other details.
“The moment a passenger scans the QR code, the details will reach our special control room which has been set up specially for this purpose. The monitoring system will generate an SMS and send it to the passenger’s mobile phone as an alert,” said Sanjay Baniwal, special commissioner of police (airport and modernisation).
He added that passengers can also simply SMS the number of the QR code card to 8130099100. “Our system will revert automatically with an SMS containing all the details of the driver and the vehicle. Simultaneously, our control room will keep tracking the passenger’s journey,” Bhatia said.
During the trials, drivers of 10 taxis have been asked to inform passengers, especially women, to scan the QR code using Himmat app at the time of boarding. Later, the QR code will be put up in around 2,000 kaali-peeli taxis operating from Delhi airport, police said.
Baniwal said once the code is scanned, the mobile application automatically reads the details of the vehicle, its owner and driver besides tracking the passenger’s journey through GPS.
A message will be sent to the commuter containing details of the driver, owner and the vehicle. It will also contain a link that lead to photographs and other details of the driver such as his licence number, contact number and address.
Sanjay Bhatia, DCP (airport), under whose supervision the new safety feature has been developed, said this will be followed be three more text messages. The first SMS will ask passengers to confirm if they are safe. If the passengers fail to revert within a few minutes, they will get a call from the control room and the question will be repeated. “The passenger will have to respond to the call otherwise the calls will be made again,” said Bhatia.
In the other two messages, passengers will be asked if they have safely reached their destination. The last message will come at the end of the journey. A call will again be made from the control room if the passenger fails to respond.