The Nationwide Emergency Response System (NERS)/Emergency Response Support System (ERSS), more catchily known as Dial 112, was inaugurated today by Chief Secretary RV Suchiang here.
The NERS/ERSS/Dial 112 is the vision of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to launch a nationwide, unified emergency response system with a single emergency number – 112 – for all kinds of emergencies and distress signals from citizens in the form of voice call, SMS, email, panic SOS request, web request, etc.
All these distress signals are sent to the common 112 number, the automated facility envisaged to be set up for this purpose in the capital cities of all states and Union territories. Henceforth, all the existing emergency numbers, like 100 (police), 101 (fire and rescue), 108 (ambulance), 181 (women and child care) etc, will be integrated to unified number 112.
The implementation of NERS involves setting up three major components: public safety answering point (PSAP) implementation at the state/UT capital, district coordination centre (DCC) extensions with associated emergency response units (vehicles fitted with mobile data terminals) and the national support services (NSS) implementation at the national capital.
The emergency response vehicles will be able to communicate with the PSAP dispatchers and web dispatch terminals and will have access to an integrated Google Map that can display the needy person’s location/trace and other vehicle location and uploads the device’s real-time location information to PSAP at regular intervals.
The Home Department in Meghalaya had procured eight Maruti Eeco vans and the government had allowed the department to requisition 12 light vehicles to begin with the NERS project. All these vehicles are fitted with the mobile data terminals (MDTs), first aid boxes and fire extinguishers.
These vehicles will be located in East Khasi Hills (4), West Khasi Hills (1), Ri-Bhoi (2), East Jaiñtia Hills (1), West Jaiñtia Hills (2), Eastern West Khasi Hills (1), South West Khasi Hills (1), North Garo Hills (1), East Garo Hills (2), West Garo Hills (3), South West Garo Hills (1) and South Garo Hills (1).
Apart from these vehicles, the Highway Patrol vehicles will also be mounted with MDTs and will function as emergency response vehicles and anybody facing problems on the highways can call 112 now. At present there are 13 Highway Patrol vehicles in the state.
