Sigh of relief for people of Maharashtra; State to get its own customized helpline soon

Mumbai, March 4: It’s time to rejoice and have a sigh of relief as methods to place your grievances get easy. Maharashtra is on the verge of having its own customized helpline number. This helpline will be soon made available for people to connect to emergency services such as the police.

 

It just not pertains to phone calls, but also through SMS, e-mail, via a panic button on an app, through instant messenger and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems such as Skype. This will be done under the state's Maharashtra Emergency Response System (MERS) project which will also integrate emergency helplines such as police (100), fire services (101) and ambulance (108) into a single emergency number (112).

The project is displayed on the lines of the emergency number 911 of the United States, and was recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in April 2015. The official said the around Rs 429 crore project would enable those in distress to contact emergency services through not just phone calls but also a mobile app, SMS, email, VoIP and social media tools.

Maharashtra has 10 police commission rates and 35 district police units and project will be implemented in phases. The first one will cover Thane, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chandrapur, Bhandara, Gondia, Wardha, Amravati, Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Kolhapur, Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri and Raigad, followed by the rest of the state. The functions of the Mumbai Police control room will be integrated with this set-up. The control rooms are expected to handle an average of one lakh calls every day.

The emergency response vehicles will be prepared with MDTs (Mobile Data Terminals) to enable locating them on GIS maps and help route them to the callers. The Home department will also purchase some four and two-wheeler vehicles for use in rural and urban areas.