The Indian Express, Nov. 24th 2001
THE Coimbatore-based Bannari Infotech Pvt Ltd is readying to launch a device to track the movement of vehicles which can be analysed by the computer later.
The Coimbatore corporation has fixed global positioning sytems (GPS or BLACK Boxes) in four of its conservancy trucks to monitor conservancy operations in the city. the concept of monitoring the conservancy trucks was taken up by the corporation as Assistant commissioners in each zone corporation health officials and sanitary inspectors were unable to keep a record of the trucks that could carry 15 garbage collecting containers.
A proposal to install conservancy trucks with GPS was placed before the council on September 27.the proposal was again taken up during the council meeting on October 18 and it was decided to go ahead with the proposal to improve the efficiency of conservancy work the council passed the proposal.
One black box been installed in four trucks on an experimental basis. Each black box cost the corporation Rs.15, 000. The technology has been provided by Bannari infotech ltd , who have successfully installed GPS in many trucks involved in trading of goods.
There are two different types of GPS -online and offline. Online is continuous monitoring through the satellite. But the GPS's in the the trucks are offline the black boxes have a software which would calculate the time taken by the trucks to stop and collect garbage from each site," says chief health officers (CHO) Dr.R Damodaran. at the end of the day ,the software can be downloaded in to a computer to verify if the conservancy work has taken place properly," he adds.
While the corporations in the state maintain records of the vehicles used and various actions taken to optimise usage, there has never been a tool like GPS used to give actual data to help optimise activities." It is almost like a duty manager from a particular depot traveling in the vehicle utilisation and driver behavior ,"say the technicians at Bannari Infotech Pvt Ltd. that is the reason GPS is often referred to as the 'Eye in the sky', they add.
Damodaran says the GPS will give the detail of a particular route, the speed of the vehicle and the time taken by the driver at each garbage collecting site. All this will help in making the system efficiency," he adds
