West Bengal has launched its Dial 112 emergency response service, promising round-the-clock police assistance and adding 450 vehicles to the force at a time when the state government is seeking to expand emergency-response capacity. The rollout was announced during Mahalaya, with one car and one motorcycle allocated to each police station, according to a report by Sangbad Pratidin.
The service is intended to provide police assistance through a single emergency number. The report said the administration would remain prepared 24 hours a day to respond to emergency situations. The launch also includes the appointment of 1,500 drivers to support the expanded vehicle fleet.
State Police Minister Suvendu Adhikari said the government had been reviewing the police system across West Bengal during the previous five months. He said he had visited police control rooms and worked towards introducing a live traffic system across the state. He also referred to equipment and support provided to police personnel, including raincoats arranged through HIDCO and the New Town Kolkata Development Authority.
Adhikari linked the new emergency number to concerns about the earlier response system. According to the report, he said calls to the previous 100 number had not always received a response. The new arrangement places a dedicated vehicle and motorcycle at every police station, although the supplied report does not provide details on call-routing technology, response-time targets, control-room staffing or the geographic coverage of the service.
The minister also cited police personnel numbers while discussing the force’s capacity. He said West Bengal currently had 155 police personnel per one lakh people, compared with 200 per lakh in Uttar Pradesh and 105 per lakh during the previous government. These figures were presented in his remarks and were not accompanied in the report by a separate official staffing document.
The state government is also preparing to recruit more than 11,000 new constables before the Durga Puja period, the minister said. He attributed delays in the recruitment process to an issue involving reservations for Other Backward Classes and said legislative changes had been made to address it. The report said selected candidates were expected to receive appointment letters on the following Friday.
The announcement combines emergency-number reform with wider police modernisation measures: additional vehicles, drivers, recruitment and traffic-management systems. For residents, the practical impact will depend on whether calls are answered consistently, vehicles reach incidents quickly and police stations have sufficient personnel to operate the expanded service. The administration’s next stated milestone is the distribution of appointment letters to the selected constables.
