— CM BHAGWANT SINGH MANN LED PUNJAB GOVT ALLOCATES ₹125Cr FOR EXPANSION OF ERV FLEET, ₹53Cr FOR CONSTRUCTION OF STATE-OF-THE-ART DIAL 112 BUILDING
— DGP GAURAV YADAV CHAIRS MEETING OF ERSS’s STATE LEVEL STEERING COMMITTEE
— FOUR KEY DEPARTMENTS DEALING WITH EMERGENCY SERVICES TO BE INTEGRATED SOON, SAYS DGP GAURAV YADAV
— EMERGENCY RESPONSE VEHICLES RECENTLY UPGRADED WITH 165 NEW SMARTPHONES TO IMPROVE RESPONSE TIME: SPL DGP ARPIT SHUKLA
CHANDIGARH, March 28:
With Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann led Punjab Government allocating ₹178 crores to upgrade its Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) or Dial 112 in the state, Punjab Police has launched intensive efforts to integrate the four key departments dealing with emergency services— Police, Health, Fire and Disaster Management— into a unified response network with the goal of reducing emergency response time from 25 minutes to 8 minutes— setting a new national benchmark.
Notably, during the ‘Badalda Punjab’ Budget for financial years 2025-26, Punjab Government has allocated ₹125 crores for expansion of Emergency Response Vehicles fleet and upgradation of district control rooms, while, ₹53 crore were allocated for construction of new ‘Dial 112’ headquarters.
Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav, who was chairing the meeting of state level steering committee of ERSS, informed that the comprehensive overhaul, being implemented on war footing by the Punjab Police, focuses on three critical areas with first being establishing a seamless coordination between departments through technological integration, where all emergency calls to Dial-112 will be automatically routed to the relevant services.
He said that second is mobility, under which Punjab Police is massively expanding the emergency vehicle fleet with 758 four-wheelers and 916 two-wheelers, with the first phase of 300 vehicles expected to hit the roads by June 2025. Currently, Punjab Police operates with a fleet of 258 dedicated ERVs due to which the average response time to distress calls goes up to 25 minutes.
He said that thirdly, Punjab Police has been focusing on the construction of a state-of-the-art Dial 112 headquarters, featuring advanced technologies like AI-powered call analytics, GIS tracking systems, and integrated dispatch capabilities. The construction of building is expected to be completed by end of 2026, he added.
The DGP said that this initiative will establish a centralised command structure where all distress calls through Dial 112 will be automatically routed to the appropriate department – medical emergencies (108), fire incidents (101), or disaster situations (1070). Each emergency service will have dedicated workstations operating round-the-clock at the control room, he said.
Special DGP Law and Order Arpit Shukla, who is member of the committee, apprised the DGP that 165 new smartphones have recently been distributed to the ERVs to improve the emergency response time. He informed that each ERV is currently fitted with Mobile Data Terminals (MDT), now in addition to it new smartphones with dual-sims will ensure uninterrupted connectivity, even if one network fails.
The Special DGP informed that Dial 112 has already processed over 2.34 crore calls and registered nearly 20.05 lakh cases till now.
