Kolkata, Oct. 5 -- West Bengal will roll out the national emergency response number '112' on Saturday, aimed at significantly reducing the time taken by police to reach the site of an emergency. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said the service will be formally launched at Brigade Parade Ground on October 10.
The rollout will be accompanied by a major mobility upgrade for the state police. In the first phase, each of the 450 police stations will receive a dedicated quick response vehicle and a motorcycle for QRT operations. The government plans to subsequently expand the fleet to four vehicles and four motorcycles for every police station across Bengal.
Adhikari said police response in the state takes around 90 minutes to 2 hours in several cases, particularly where reaching the spot involves difficult road access.
The 112 system is intended to bring down the response time substantially through a dedicated emergency-response mechanism.
The CM said Bengal would develop a rapid-response model similar to those operating in states such as UP and Gujarat. "Motorcycles will be deployed in locations where conventional police vehicles face difficulty in reaching an incident site, allowing personnel to negotiate congested or narrow stretches more quickly.'
The rollout is expected to strengthen emergency policing by integrating calls with a faster field response. Officials will have to ensure that the additional vehicles and motorcycles are adequately staffed and strategically deployed if the promised reduction in response time is to translate into quicker assistance on the ground.
The launch comes as the state seeks to modernise its policing infrastructure and make emergency intervention more responsive, the CM said.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.