Bhubaneswar, Mar 19 (IANS): Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday launched a unified emergency helpline number '112' to provide emergency services to public.
Dedicating the system, the Chief Minister said that from now on, people will dial only a single number 112 for all their emergency needs related to police, fire service, health, disaster and any other emergency in times of distress.
Patnaik said that this Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) will be very beneficial for all, especially women and elderly persons.
The Chief Minister also inaugurated the state-of-the-art State Emergency Response Centre and flagged off the Emergency Response Vehicles fitted with Mobile Data Terminals.
The state government has allocated Rs 157.12 crore and 2500 posts for this project.
With the introduction of this new response system, the existing emergency numbers like Police 100, Fire 101, and Ambulance 108-102 will be integrated into the unified toll free number 112 in a phased manner.
Expressing happiness over the new system, the Chief Minister said that it will provide a round-the-clock service with a facility of receiving inputs from various voice and data services such as voice calls, SMS, emails, panic-SOS requests and even web requests through a specially created 112 India App.
The Chief Minister said that the Emergency Response Centre has been digitally connected to 34 District Coordination Centres at district level and suitably located Emergency Response Vehicles.AA
AThe Chief Minister appealed the people to download 112 India Mobile App and register themselves as 112 Volunteers to help others in their locality during any distress.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Home Dibya Shankar Mishra expressed happiness over the introduction of a single emergency number that will now help people instead of multiple emergency numbers.
He described the initiatives taken by the state police under the guidance of the Chief Minister for safety and security of women, children and senior citizens.
Under the new system, a caller will also be able to send distress signals by pressing the power button on a Smart Phone three times in quick succession or by a long press key on a feature phone to activate a panic call.
One will also be able to log on to the State ERSS website (www.or.erss.in ) and place an SOS request, E-mail or SOS alert to the SERC.
The 112 India Mobile App will also enable in activating a panic call.