KOCHI: Six months ago, the single helpline number 112 was launched in Kochi. Christened the 'Emergency Response Support System (ERSS), it integrated the police (100) and fire (101) helpline numbers in the district.
However, the helpline is yet to gain popularity among people, who still prefer to dial ‘100’ for police and ‘101’ for fire rescue.
According to officials in the police control room, they receive a meagre 10 calls a day on the ERSS helpline, while the police helpline number ‘100’ receives over 1,000 calls a day in Kochi city alone.
“It seems people don't know about the services available on the ERSS helpline. On some days, we don't even receive a single call. People, however, still call ‘100’ to reach the police and ‘101’ to reach the Fire and Rescue Services Department,” said S T Suresh Kumar, ACP, Control Room, Kochi City.
Just 5 per cent calls require intervention
Kumar said though the control room received over 1,000 calls a day on the ‘100’ helpline, less than 50 of them require any police intervention.
“Around 40 per cent of the calls are enquiries by people who are not familiar with places in Kochi and call us to know about the routes to reach their destination. The majority of the calls are anonymous or wrongly
dialled,” he said.
Set up on the lines of emergency helpline numbers in foreign countries, ERSS, in most places, integrates the police, fire, heath (108) and women safety (1090) helpline numbers. It is currently available in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Kozhikode, Thrissur and Kollam districts.
As part of ERSS, an emergency response centre (ERC) has been formed in the police control room. Sponsored by the Centre, the project was developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing and implemented in over 20 states.
People can also reach the ERC by quickly pressing the power button of the smartphone thrice. On ordinary
phones, long-pressing 5 or 9 can trigger a panic call to the ERC.
In Kochi, the health, electricity, water and transport-related services will be connected to the helpline number in later stages.