Mobile app developed to locate victims trapped during natural calamities

New Delhi, Feb 28: A doctor's initiative in harnessing technology has produced an application which can help locate a person trapped in debris in an earthquake or other disasters when communications fail.

Pradeep Bhardwaj, CEO of Six Sigma High Altitude Medical Services for Rescue, says his company has developed a software application which can be tracked through the mobile phone.

The concept is based on ham radio used by amateurs to communicate with one another. However, the application developed by Six Sigma, which can be downloaded to a mobile phone, is not for communication but for continuously sending out a signal which can be detected by special equipment.

"The application does not require mobile network or internet connection to communicate. This is based on satellite which will continuously transmit coded signals but which cannot be used to communicate," Bhardwaj to IANS.

The transmitted signals can be detected within a radius of 50 kilometres.

He said that keeping the security concerns in mind, the application had been designed in such a way that people tracking the signal can get information on its location with accuracy. Bhardwaj said the Telecommunications Ministry had already given them a licence to operate the system.

Six Sigma medical services have been recognised by the Central government, several state governments and countries like Nepal and China for its contribution in saving and counselling thousands of people during the Uttrakhand cloud-burst in 2013, Nepal earthquake in 2015 and China earthquakes, Bhardwaj said.

"The Real Time Location application is made keeping in mind the rescue operations in high altitude areas where mobile towers network or Internet fails being hit by a natural calamity. People or soldiers who get trapped in the debris or snow can easily be helped out using the application," Bhardwaj said.

Till now, Bhardwaj said, he and his team had saved more than 5,600 victims who were stuck in high altitudes.

The Six Sigma is also known for setting up a base camp at a height of 24,500 feet on Mount Everest during the Nepal earthquake, where they had played a major role in helping the Indian Army rescue people.

Bhardwaj said they would send a proposal on the application to the Health Ministry soon, urging it to get it installed in the cell phones of soldiers and people living in high altitude areas which are prone to earthquakes and landslides.

C.K. Misra, additional health Secretary in the ministry of health, told IANS: "This is a good initiative which will help people in high altitude areas. But, he said, the government would need to look into such applications."

Bhardwaj claimed the application could have helped track Indian soldiers caught in the avalanche recently in Siachen, had these been installed in their mobile phones.

(Rupesh Dutta can be contacted at [email protected])

IANS