Sangrur: Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Singh Mann on Tuesday flagged off 508 emergency response vehicles (ERVs) and said police assistance across the state would now reach within six minutes under the Dial-112 system.“Punjab Police will now reach people in distress within six minutes, on a par with emergency response systems in the US and Europe,” Mann said.The new vehicles will be deployed across all 28 police districts, taking the Dial-112 fleet strength to 764. The vehicles are equipped with GPS trackers, dash cameras and mobile data systems to enable faster response.Mann said the emergency helpline receives around 15,000 calls daily, of which nearly 1,500 are dispatched, and that the average response time has already come down from 30–45 minutes to 13–14 minutes.The chief minister said the state had spent Rs 327.69 crore on police vehicles over the past four years, purchasing 2,904 vehicles since 2022, and claimed every police station now had at least one new vehicle.Linking police modernisation with law and order, Mann said the crackdown on drug trafficking had strengthened policing and improved security. He also claimed this had boosted investor confidence, citing Tata Steel’s second-largest plant in Punjab.On road safety, Mann said the state’s Sadak Surakhiya Force, with 1,597 personnel and 144 vehicles, had reduced highway accident fatalities by 48% since its launch.
