The absence of an updated road-database, appropriate infrastructure and a centralized traffic monitoring system would make installation of global position system (GPS) trackers in vehicles ineffective, experts fear.
They say that given the circumstance, a big question mark hangs over the wisdom of home minister Sahara Khatun’s call on Wednesday to install GPS trackers in all vehicles including trucks, buses and private cars in order to prevent accidents and thefts.
Neither the road authorities nor the traffic divisions of civic bodies possess any updated electronic database on the roads. Experts say it would be impossible to track vehicles on highways without setting up beacons and close-circuit television cameras at strategic places. Mohammad Saiful Islam, an automobile engineer of Hyundai, told The Independent that the vehicle tracking system required the installation of a specifically programmed electronic device on motor cars.
“It needs at least one operational database to enable the owner or a third party to track the vehicle, collecting data in the process from the field and deliver it to the base of operation,” he explained.
He said that previously vehicles could be tracked by installing a box in it, which either ran on a battery or wired to the vehicle’s power system.
“Now, traffic authorities in modern cities are using GPS tracking devices which fit into vehicles and capture the GPS location information by using a road database and then store the information in a centralised server for further use,” he said.
Saiful further said no updated road database was available in Bangladesh. “Anybody can install a GPS tracker on his/her car as various car-tracking devices are available in the market. But, it would be useless in the absence of a centralised traffic monitoring system and updated road database,” he added.
Dr Satyaprasad Majumder, professor of telecommunication engineering in BUET, told The Independent that a GPS device use a level-0 mapping database which is publicly available, and can gather data from the whole world through satellites for automobile navigation.
Such devices, however, require a special type of circuit using a level-1 mapping database prepared through detailed vector mapping of particular locations to track automobiles. “The country’s traffic authorities do not have that facility,” he added. Majumder pointed out that it was possible to track vehicles with state-of-the-art cell phone technologies.
“This technology is rather simple. Some cell phone-makers have already installed a tracker in their handsets and as telecom operators cover almost the entire geographic location of the country, these handsets could be tracked anywhere using the operators’ database,” he said.
He also said the same could be applied to tracking automobiles and vehicles if the transport authorities have an agreement with the country’s telecom operators. “But 3G technology is needed for smoother operations,” Majumder added. Saiful Haque, engineering director of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), told The Independent that the home ministry had asked the BRTA to issue a directive for installation of GPS trackers in vehicles to avert road accidents. Earlier, following a High Court order, the BRTA had tried to install a speed-governor seal — a device used to control the speed of motor vehicles — on vehicles but car-owners rejected it. “Now, the authorities want to install GPS trackers in vehicles,” Haque said adding, “We still haven’t received any official directive from the home ministry about it. We would be able to comment on the issue only after we have received it.”
-With The Independent input
