You may have seen in the movies or even read in books about ‘911’, the number the United States denizens dial for emergency situations. Now a similar service is being introduced in India by the Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI), which is about to launch this service in Madhya Pradesh.

In a recent statement, Health minister Ambumani Ramadoss was told by Union Telecom minister A. Raja that 108 is being finalized as the national toll free trauma care number.

It was further mentioned that 108 is already being used as the toll free emergency number in Indian states such as Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have linked with the EMRI Institute for this service. Indian states Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Kerala are charting plans for fixing the number 108 for all emergency purposes.

Every time a caller dials 108, his or her call will be received by a 24 hour call centre which will take down all important information from the caller. After this, the call centre will locate an ambulance, fire vehicle or the police vehicle, depending on the type of emergency, through GPRS technology and dispatch it to where the help is needed.

The EMRI Institute has received top recognition in the health care category at the 2008 computer world honours programme.