IIT Madras Collabs with Assam Govt.; Becomes First State to Launch India’s First Night Navigation Mobile App in Rivers

New Delhi: IIT Madras has introduced India’s first-night navigation mobile application for ferries on the Brahmaputra river under the Assam Government on Saturday, February 19, 2022. Chief Minister Himanta Biswas Sarma launched the system during a ceremony.

As per an official spokesperson, the inaugural night journey of an Inland Water Transport ferry, set in accordance with the system, sailed between Guwahati and North Guwahati at 9 pm and completed the return journey in almost an hour.

These services are expected to reduce footfalls at DTOs by about 4 lakh people annually.

The CM also launched night navigation facility for Guwahati-based ferry services and e-ticketing system for Dhubri & Silchar ferry services.

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— Chief Minister Assam (@CMOfficeAssam) February 19, 2022

The night navigation mobile application has been developed by the Transport Department in close association with the principal scientist of IIT Madras, K Raju and later, they will survey the draft of the rivers, as reported by the NDTV.

As per the official release, during the ceremony, the CM also launched ten Aadhar-based contactless services of the department to make the public service delivery efficient and any kind of hassle-free.

CM Dr @himantabiswa launched 10 new online Aadhar-based services of Transport Dept – transfer of ownership, hypothecation cancellation, hypothecation endorsement, NOC, address change, duplicate registration certificate, international driving permit, DL replacement, etc.
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— Chief Minister Assam (@CMOfficeAssam) February 19, 2022

The release also has mentioned that the services are expected to lower the footfalls at the District Transport Offices (DTOs) by almost four lakh per year.

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During the ceremony, regarding ‘Minimising Compliance Burden’, Sarma has stated that efforts are underway in the state to ease the burdens of the common people. This is in accordance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of developing an ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ and therefore, the online services are a necessary step towards that direction.

The release also has mentioned that the DTOs would become free to focus on enforcing rules as well as guidelines.

Lauding the Transport Department for earning approximately INR 800 crore revenue despite the pandemic situation, the CM has stated that it is one of the best performing departments in the last 9 months since the Government began to work.

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E-Ticketing System

Sarma also launched an e-ticketing system for Dhubri and Silchar ferry services during the ceremony.

Under the Ministry of Information, an MoU was also signed between the Common Service Centres (CSC) and the Transport Department for the purpose of facilitating people at the panchayat level to get online services.

A grand total of 13,658 CSCs in the state will allow the common people to obtain the newly launched online services. The 10 services launched by the Department are 6 ‘Vahan’ software-based services related to the vehicles and 4 ‘Sarathi’ software-based services related to driving licence.

Earlier, three Aadhar based services were launched in 2021- applying for learner’s driving licence remotely, renewal of driving licence and issue of duplicate driving licence. Till date, a total number of 4,52,000 people have availed of the services, as per the database. They have managed to obtain their ‘Learner’s Licence’ via these online services.

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