UP’S 112 fleet to add smaller cars for faster response to emergencies

LUCKNOW: Smaller cars will soon replace some bigger SUVS of Uttar Pradesh police’s 112 emergency service to improve response time to distress calls and enable teams to access congested areas and narrow lanes faster, a senior official said.

There are times the vehicles lose time in traffic due to their size and at times they themselves cause jams, said additional director general of police (112 service) Asim Arun.

The UP Police’s 112 service (formerly the 100 service) currently has around 4,500 vehicles of which nearly 3,000 are fourwheeler SUVS and the remaining are motorcycles.

Arun said currently 15,000 to 16,000 events across the state are attended daily by the emergency responders, while the number of distress calls is even more.

“Many a time the calls come from incident spots located in busy markets, congested areas, narrow lanes and such places,” Arun told PTI.

“We will soon be adding into our fleet cars which are smaller in size than our SUVS so they can easily navigate such areas and the response time can be improved,” he said, adding specifics like car type and number of vehicles are yet to be worked out.

He said UP police’s average response time in urban areas stands 7-8 minutes, while in rural areas it is 15 to 20 minutes.

On this difference, he said there are more events from urban areas where deployment of PRVS is also higher, while in rural areas distress calls are not frequent and locations of villages is also isolated. Arun added that during lockdown, emergency responders tended to an average of 35,000 distress calls daily.

“During the lockdown, the 112 utilised the state capacity following directions from the CM. Our PRVS were providing dry ration, cooked meals, milk for newborns and infants and what not. On many occasions, PRV personnel spent money from their own pockets to help callers,” he added. On further utilization of 112 in diverse roles like lodging of FIR, he said it was more of a “policy question”. “But as far as capacity is concerned, we are technically equipped for it,” Arun said.