Bengal has launched the 112 emergency helpline with plans to place dedicated response teams, a car and a two-wheeler at each of the state’s 450 police stations, in a move aimed at reducing emergency response times and replacing the troubled Dial-100 system.
Speaking at the launch at Brigade Parade Ground on Saturday, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari described Dial-100 as “practically defunct” and said people had stopped relying on it because calls were not consistently attended. He attributed the earlier system’s problems to inadequate infrastructure, dependence on civic volunteers and the diversion or misuse of police personnel.
The new Emergency Response Support System will use additional voice channels and Internet Protocol extensions to manage a higher volume of calls, senior home department officials said. The change is intended to address problems that had affected Dial-100, including delayed responses and instances in which calls reportedly terminated at locations different from those intended.
The state has handed over one car and one two-wheeler to each of the 450 police stations. Adhikari said the government planned to add four more cars and four motorcycles to the existing fleet at every police station next year. The expansion is designed to give station-level police units dedicated mobility for responding to emergencies rather than relying only on vehicles already assigned to other duties.
The government also plans to create a 20-member emergency response team at every police station, comprising 15 men and five women police personnel. The proposed staffing model is intended to reduce response times and provide a dedicated operational unit for emergency calls. The announcement did not specify when all the teams would become fully operational.
Adhikari said Bengal’s average emergency response time was 90 minutes, compared with 10 to 15 minutes in Calcutta, where a larger fleet of vehicles allows police to respond more quickly. He cited response times of between six and 10 minutes in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat while asking why Bengal could not achieve a similar level of performance.
The chief minister also linked emergency response capacity to police staffing and equipment. He said Bengal had 105 police personnel per lakh citizens and argued that effective policing required adequate manpower, modern equipment, logistical support and an upgraded cyber cell. The new helpline therefore combines a telecommunications change with a wider plan for station-level personnel and vehicle deployment.
The announcement also drew attention to the condition of police infrastructure. Adhikari criticised attacks on police personnel and the poor upkeep of some police stations, saying buildings in Watgunge and Ekbalpore appeared to be nearly a century old and lacked sufficient closed-circuit television coverage. He said these conditions had to change.
The rollout places the reliability of the emergency system on two linked requirements: calls must reach the correct response network, and police stations must have enough trained personnel and vehicles to act on them. The state’s next steps are the creation of the dedicated teams and the planned addition of four cars and four motorcycles at each police station next year.
