Government school buses to go smart

DUBAI: Emirates Transport (ET) is going to install the smart system in all governmental school buses in Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah, in a partnership with the Ministry of Education, as of next November, according to Jassem Al Marzouqi, Manager of School Transport Centre at the Emirates Transport.

Marzouqi added, “The project has already been implemented in public schools in Abu Dhabi and the new step will include installing the system in 2,370 school buses between August and October 2017. We aim to complete the project before the end of this year.”

He explained that the project enables parents to know the location of their sons’ or daughters’ buses through text messages sent by the system. The system, he added, includes a large database contributing to the distribution of school bus routes, identifying the best ways and then avoiding traffic jam.

Marzouqi noted the system contains a smoke sensor alerting the operations room, the station and the branch on smoke inside the bus, and in turn the concerned authorities take the suitable and rapid action.

The heat sensor also monitors temperature on the bus to keep the students comfortable. Marzouqi added that the camera system installed on the school bus includes 7 high-resolution cameras, four of which are external fully covering the perimeter of the bus, and the other three indoor cameras cover all the seats and students inside the bus.

He said that the Emirates Transport considers that there is not a difference between public school buses and private schools ones, since the safety of the student is a top priority which cannot be underestimated, so the services provided by the ET are the same on all buses.

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