Patna, Dec. 22: Police in the state capital today appealed to women taking autorickshaws to text message the unique identification numbers of the vehicles to their relatives.

A day after The Telegraph reported the police’s decision to revive plans to ensure security of women, senior superintendent of police (SSP) Amrit Raj advised the residents to be alert while travelling in autorickshaws. He said all autorickshaws in the city would be coded with the unique identification numbers within 15 days.

“The system of unique numbering of autorickshaws has been revived. The move will be completed in 15 days. Once it is done, women travelling by autorickshaws in the capital should make it a point to carefully read the unique numbers of the vehicles they take. They should then text message the numbers to their mothers or anyone in their families. Once this is done, the relatives will know which autorickshaws they are travelling in,” the SSP said.

Two years ago on December 30, then senior superintendent of police Bachchu Singh Meena had announced that each autorickshaw plying in Patna would have a unique identification code displayed in the front of the vehicle. The directive had come after a 30-year-old NGO worker from Uttar Pradesh was gang raped by an autorickshaw driver and his three friends on December 4, 2010. The plan lost steam in less than a year of its introduction and is being implemented now in the wake of the New Delhi gang rape.

Autorickshaws originating from Patna’s Kotwali area would be coded with K-1 and so on just like the last time. The vehicles plying in the Jakkanpur area would be coded with J-1 and so forth. Each area in the city would have different coded autos.

The respective police stations would also have registers with details of every autorickshaw driver such as his name, address and mobile number, vehicle registration number and the name and address of the owner. Sources said girls informing their family members about the autorickshaw they are travelling in was just a precaution.

“We want to ensure that women are safe. The police presence on streets has been increased and officers in all police stations have been directed to regularly patrol the streets,” a police officer said.