The Hindu Business Line : Core's vehicle-tracking project launched in Delhi-Jaipur highway

KEEPING TRACK: The Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Mr T.R. Baalu (right), launches a landmark vehicle tracking pilot project on the Delhi-Jaipur highway in the Capital on Thursday, as the Core Project & Technologies Ltd CEO, Mr Prakash Salkar (extreme left), and the Director, Mr Achyut Godbole, look on. — Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , July 21

CORE Projects & Technologies, in association with Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), is working on radio frequency identification (RFID)-based vehicle tracking project on the Delhi-Jaipur Highway. The pilot project was launched by the Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Mr T.R. Baalu.

Pointing out that vehicle tracking would be of use to owners and drivers of vehicles, Mr Baalu hoped that "more such companies would participate in the project."

Under the project, 68 buses plying on the highway have been fitted with RFID tags and readers have been placed to track the vehicle movement along the highway. "RFID grids have been placed along with VSAT terminals at four places that are about 50 km apart from each other. The Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (RSRTC) passenger buses moving between the two States have been fitted with RFID tags, whereby their movement is being tracked, monitored and managed," Mr Hemant Saravate, Vice-President-Projects, Core Projects & Technologies, said in a press briefing. Each of these tags costs between Rs 6,000 and Rs 8,000 though radio tags are available in prices ranging from Rs 2,000-Rs 25,000.

Core plans to build other applications in the logistics arena, for transporters and retail firms that would help track a vehicle as well as scan its contents. The company is in talks with ST Micro, X-ident, Transcore for `strategic alliances'. "The alliances could be in the form of technology transfer, people and/or finances," added Mr Saravate. Consolidated IT logistics for tracking was expected to be a Rs 500-crore business by 2007, he said. Core planned to tie up with various wireless service providers for providing the backend connectivity for different States.

"We would like to have exclusive tie-ups with various cellular service providers on a circle-to-circle basis," he said. While the exact nature of tie-up with cellular service providers was not yet finalised, the company may look at a revenue-sharing model with them for using their infrastructure, added Mr Saravate.

The company planned to undertake pilot projects in the North East, South and Mumbai-Pune high-speed corridor over the next one-and-a-half years.

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