You may have often seen in the movies or even read in books about ‘911’ the number the United States denizens dial incase of emergency situations! Now a similar service is being introduced in India by the Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI), which is soon about to launch this service in Madhya Pradesh. In a recent statement, Health minister Ambumani Ramadoss was intimated by Union Telecom minister A Raja that 108 is being finalized as the national toll free trauma care number to the institution.

 

It was further informed that 108 is already being used as the toll free emergency number in Indian states such as Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. On the other hand, even states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have inked MoU with the EMRI Institute for availing this service. Indian states like Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Kerala too are charting plans for fixing the number 108 for all emergency purposes.

 

Every time a caller dials 108, his or her call will be received by a 24 hour call centre which will take down all important information from the caller. After this, the call centre will locate an ambulance, fire vehicle or the police vehicle depending on the type of emergency through GPRS technology and dispatch it to where the help is needed. The EMRI Institute has received top recognition in the health care category at the 2008 computer world honours programme.