There were reports last month that the Indian Government will soon come up with a ‘911’ like emergency number. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Telecom and IT Minister has approved the provision for the emergency number, 112.
It is going to be a single emergency number, just like the one in US and will be operational in India from January 1, 2017. The upcoming single emergency number will redirect the people to the services of fire department, ambulance and police. The existing emergency numbers such as Emergency Disaster Management (108), Ambulance (102), Fire Brigade (101) and Police (100) will be replaced by the 112 single emergency number.
It will be available through landlines, SIMs and even in those devices where the services has been temporarily stopped or suspended. People can also communicate the service via SMS and the system will contact back the user after learning the location of the caller.
And from 2018, phones will have GPS systems besides the panic button.
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