KARACHI, Nov 6: Despite the approval by the Sindh governor to the vehicles inspection and monitoring system designed by the National Database Registration Authority, the serious reservations shown by the departments concerned could not be removed, reducing the chances of success of the system.
Well-placed sources in different government departments told Dawn that the system was not meant for anti-theft of vehicles but it was globally used to track the record of toll tax and other industrial purposes.
The technology is known as radio frequency identification technology (RFID), first invented by Harry Stockman, introduced in his 1948 report of “Communication by Means of Reflected Power”.
However, officials had claimed that the VIMS had been conceived, designed, and developed by Nadra aiming at checking vehicle thefts. They claimed that the project was a ground-based tracking system, which would not only provide law enforcement authorities to monitor vehicles movement but to regulate and manage traffic during peak hours and even in cases of emergency.
According to Nadra, initially Karachi would have 20 locations for issuing chips (VINTAG) to vehicle owners. Each location would register about 1,000 cars everyday thus it would hardly take 4 to 5 months for registering all the vehicles of Sindh. In Karachi alone, there are some 1.5 million vehicles and Nadra has been authorized to collect Rs300 from a motorcyclist and Rs1,000 from other vehicles. Initially 19 check posts would be established of which 10 would be fixed posts and the nine others would be mobile units. Three control centres would also be set up to check and monitor the movement of vehicles.
A car owner having Nadra’s ID card and vehicle in his/her own name would be issued the chip. Vehicles with open letters would not be issued the chips. To overcome the vehicle’s theft a passive windshield radio frequency sticker will be used as a transponder for Vehicle Identity Number, from which the Radio Frequency Infrared readers placed at designated highways and roads would read the VIN. Under the project, it would be mandatory for every vehicle to get a chip. All police checkpoints, major bridges and entry/exit points of towns would be equipped with trans-receivers and antennas to read details of every vehicle. A car whose VITS chip is removed will be identified instantly, it added.
Official sources strongly opposed the idea of the project and claimed that the Rs578 million project would not work as every antenna with trans-receiver needed telephone lines and electricity connections at all 19 checkpoints for transferring the data of vehicles passing through those points to the control centres. They said that in case of disruption in any of the two lines, the system at that point would not work. During the disruption of electricity or telephone line, the data of vehicles passing through that antenna could not be collected and any of the snatched or stolen vehicles could cross that checkpoint without being detected.
They said that Nadra would hand over the system to the provincial government after its installation while the entire fee collected through selling of chips would be bagged by Nadra. Sources said that no budget had been allocated for the recurring expenses of manpower to be deployed at each point besides the expenses of telephone lines and electricity. They said that all the 20 checkpoints were connected with power generators, who would pay for their fuel. No one would be ready to bear the recurring expenses and the system would ultimately collapse.
Official sources said that replacement of windscreen did not require many hours but it was a task of minutes for experts. They said the windscreen of a stolen car could be replaced with one that was neither stolen nor snatched. The antenna of the VIMS would not detect it.
The sources said there were 27 known exit and entry routes in Karachi from where the snatched and stolen vehicles were transported to the interior of Sindh or to other provinces. The installation at 10 locations could not put an effective check and would make the project ineffective.
Officials in the Sindh and city governments said Nadra would collect millions from people in the name of the project and the money of people would go in waste as the system was not feasible to put an effective and efficient check on those snatched or stolen vehicles being taken out of the metropolis.
