The state government has decided to extend by two months the deadline for installing tracking devices and panic buttons on all commercial vehicles. The earlier deadline was March 31.

“An official notice regarding the extension of the deadline till May 31 will be sent to all regional transport offices. This will allow owners of commercial vehicles to carry out the mandatory fitness test and apply for renewal of their permits (after getting the device installed),” Snehasis Chakraborty, state transport minister, told Metro.

Transport department officials said the owners of only about 5,000 commercial vehicles, of the 300,000-odd, in the state have complied with the state government directive on the installation of the tracking device.

Many of the owners who are yet to abide by the directive have cited costs and lack of clarity on how the devices work. A vehicle tracking system allows the tracking and controlling of vehicles on an online computer or a smartphone with the help of GPS satellites.

The gadget makes it possible to have instantaneous tracking of vehicle speeds, the routes they follow along with idling times on maps, senior officials of the transport department said. Data from the system can also be retrieved later.

A government notification on November 14 said all transport vehicles, including taxis, buses, minibuses and lorries that were registered till 2018 or before would have to have vehicle tracking devices along with panic buttons fitted on them or they will not be fit to undertake the mandatory fitness tests and their permits won’t be renewed. The deadline to complete the process was March 31.

The state government has enlisted a dozen companies to sell the gadget without fixing the price. Several bus and lorry owners complained that the number was woefully short to meet the demand.

“There is no word on whether these companies would offer service and for how long. We are unaware of the location of the service centres. The state government should clear the doubts,” said Pradip Narayan Bose, general secretary of the West Bengal Bus Minibus Owners Association. Many others said they did not install the gadget because the price varied from one manufacturer to another.