TRAI plans common emergency response number for India

January 24, 2013

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is planning to bring a consultation paper regarding setting up of a single emergency helpline where a call centre will receive all distress calls and then accordingly alert departments or agencies concerned depending upon the type of emergency.

Currently India has separate emergency numbers for handling different emergencies, unlike in the US where there is only one number 911 to tackle any emergency.

In India a person generally calls on a police helpline 100 for any emergency which is then diverted to a particular department depending on the type of emergency. The whole process takes a lot of time which in turn delays the response. In order to avoid this delay and bring simplicity and effectiveness in the system, it has been proposed to establish a common helpline.

This helpline is expected to be hi-tech one where all calls would be registered in a computerised system that would track the geographic location of the caller and then alert the closest PCR, fire or ambulance fitted with GPS system to reduce response time. All this would have to be completed within a standard response time.

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