Andhra Pradesh

Dial 108 for emergency

VISAKHAPATNAM: If you are at your wits end on seeing a junior student ragged by his seniors at a bus stop or girls being teased by bullies at a public place? Dial 108 from your mobile or a landline and EMRI will take care of the rest.

Surprised? EMRI 108 ambulance is not just to shift road accident victims and patients to hospitals but also for other emergencies that require the police and fire services.

The advantage of using this service (in emergencies) is that the victim needn’t go to the police station and suffer the stigma of being asked embarrassing questions.

The identity of the caller would be kept confidential and the 108 staff would pursue the case with the police station concerned till the police act on it.

“The concerned police would expedite the case as we will take a feedback from them within a reasonable timeframe,” said the Regional Manager of EMRI Y. Rajagopal at a media conference on Saturday.

EMRI is operating 134 ambulances in Visakhapatnam Region that extends over East and West Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts. The region handled 32,000 emergencies as against the 59,000 calls received so far this month.

In Visakhapatnam district (including 11 Agency mandals) alone, 34 ambulances are being operated. As many as 14,600 calls were received and over 7,000 emergencies handled during the same time.

EMRI is operating 652 ambulances in the State. It attended to 2,20,000 emergency calls and handled 1,24,517 emergencies during this month.

Mr. Rajgopal said that the objective of the organisation was to operate an ambulance for every 80,000 to 1 lakh population.

The target was to increase the number of ambulances in the State to 1,000 by the end of this year.

The plan was to have an ambulance for each of the 1104 mandals as against the present average of one ambulance for two mandals on an average.

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