A call for tenders to create kiosks and indoor navigation systems to guide visitors inside Taipei Railway Station and facilitate evacuations during emergencies is to be launched next month, the Taipei City Government said yesterday.
The city government held a public hearing attended by IT firms to explain details of the bidding process.
The selected bidder would be required to deploy 8,000 to 13,000 indoor positioning devices, known as beacons, to give visitors directions in the railway station, as well as kiosks at eight locations, including Beimen MRT Station and Taipei City Mall, which are linked to the main station through underground passageways, guiding foreigners and other visitors to Taipei around the station, Taipei Traffic Engineering Office Liu Jui-lin (劉瑞麟) said.
By activating Bluetooth connections and an app on mobile devices, visitors would be able to open a map showing their location in the station and the way to their destination, such as underground shopping areas and the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) or High Speed Rail passenger platforms, Liu said.
The kiosks should be able to show users three-dimensional maps of all levels of the station, while electronic signs would be set up in the Beimen Station and Taipei Railway Station to inform people of the safest escape route in the case of an emergency, he said.
“The signs would be integrated. If there is smoke coming from Beimen, people need to know in which direction they should evacuate,” Liu said.
The project contractor is to be selected based on what value-added services bidders can provide the municipal government, which in turn would pay the contractor from revenue generated from two public parking lots on Civic Boulevard and firms who pay for advertisements in the app and in the station, he said.
“The routes in Taipei Railway Station are messy and people often get lost. So, the primary goal is to improve the signage,” Taipei Department of Transportation section head Chang Sheng-wan (張生萬) said.
Disaster prevention stations are to be established by the TRA at the behest of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications on the Taipei Railway Station’s second and third underground levels, Chang said.
The center is to integrate TRA, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp and High Speed Rail systems, thereby facilitating evacuation, he said.
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