To remove the worries of parents about sending children and teenagers to educational institutions, the official journey of smart school bus has started under the management of Chattogram district administration.
With the aim of building the country's first smart district, the smart school bus started its journey from Monday by connecting all the devices including presenceless, paperless and cashless technology to the school bus launched by the Prime Minister. The parents will get detailed messages when the students press the smart card in front of the attendance machine when they get up or down.
Apart from this, they can also see the location of buses and students through GPS tracking and CCTV cameras at home. Chattogram district administration has implemented this smart bus project for the safe transportation of students of different educational institutions in city, to reduce the suffering of parents, traffic congestion and fuel consumption.
Chattogram Deputy Commissioner said that these buses have been made 'smart' by installing GPS trackers, GIS technology, digital attendance devices and IP cameras in 10 school buses of the city. This project received the first award under the Smart District Innovation Challenge-2023 last October. Initially a bus was inaugurated on Monday. 10 school buses will run on the road at full speed from January.
'Smart School Bus' started its official journey from the gymnasium ground of MA Aziz Stadium. At that time there were about 70 students from 12 educational institutions of Chattogram city in the bus. Each of them pressed the smart card and boarded the bus. It will run on the road tomorrow Tuesday morning with the students. For the current year, every student will get a bus fare5 taka.
Chattogram Divisional Commissioner Md. Tofail Islam started the official journey of smart bus by using smart card in front of the digital attendance machine on Monday afternoon.
Earlier, in the speech of the chief guest at the function organized on the occasion of the official launch of the smart school bus, he said that through this initiative, the parents of the students will be free from worries. Apart from this, the traffic congestion on the road will also be reduced a lot.
In the speech of the special guest, educationist Abul Momen said that the project was launched by the Chattogram district administration, but it is the responsibility of the students to maintain it. With proper maintenance this project will be long lasting and students will benefit more.
Chattogram University Dean of Faculty of Engineering Rashed Mostafa, GPH Ispat Additional Managing Director Almas Shimul, Chattogram Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Md. Abdul Malek, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Education and ICT) Md. Sadi Ur Rahim, Heads of 10 educational institutions of Chattogram city Teachers, students and their parentswere present on the occasion.
Chattogram District Commissioner Abul Basar Mohammad Fakhruzzaman said that it will be possible to develop it as a sustainable project. Keeping in mind the students of Patenga-Halisahar area of the city, there are plans to ply 10 more buses. It is hoped that the smart school bus initiative can be developed as a sustainable project.
Smart School Bus will solve the problems of unbearable traffic jam, suffering of parents, high travel cost, fuel wastage, road accidents, unsafe school journey and loss of working hours of parents in the transportation of students going to various schools in Chattogram city.
