West Bengal has launched a 900-vehicle expansion of its Emergency Response Support System (ERSS-112), with the government setting a target of sharply reducing the state police’s average emergency response time, which the chief minister put at around 90 minutes. The rollout took place at a programme at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground on Saturday.
The new support system includes 450 four-wheelers and an equal number of motorcycles. Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said the deployment was intended to improve the police response to emergency calls across the state, while acknowledging that the current response time remained significantly higher than in Kolkata.
According to the chief minister, Kolkata Police responds to emergencies within 10 to 15 minutes because it has more personnel and vehicles. He cited response times of six to 10 minutes in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat and asked state police officials to work towards bringing Bengal’s performance closer to those levels.
The government plans to expand the vehicle availability further. Adhikari said every police station in the state would be provided with four motorcycles and four cars within a year. The state cabinet has also approved the recruitment of 1,500 drivers for the vehicles, he said.
The rollout places transport capacity at the centre of emergency policing. Police stations require vehicles that can reach callers quickly, while the availability of drivers determines whether those vehicles can be used continuously across shifts. The announcement did not specify how the vehicles would be distributed among districts or how the government would measure response times after deployment.
Adhikari also raised concerns about the condition of police stations, saying several lacked basic facilities and adequate maintenance. Referring to visits to the Watgunge and Ekbalpore police stations in Kolkata, he said the buildings appeared to be nearly a century old and did not have sufficient closed-circuit television systems or fire extinguishers.
The comments link the emergency response programme to the wider condition of police infrastructure. Faster movement of response vehicles may depend not only on fleet size but also on station facilities, communications systems, staffing and coordination between agencies. The chief minister called for improved coordination among the police, civil defence and disaster management authorities in handling emergencies.
The government also announced recruitment plans for the police force. Adhikari said more than 11,000 constables would be appointed before Durga Puja and described the recruitment process as transparent, in contrast to the previous regime. The new personnel are expected to add to the state’s policing capacity, although the announcement did not provide a station-wise deployment plan.
The chief minister praised senior officers, including Director General of Police Siddhinath Gupta and Indian Police Service officer Javed Shamim, for the conduct of recent bypolls to two Assembly seats. He also reiterated the government’s stated zero-tolerance position on drug abuse and attacks on women, and reaffirmed its commitment to securing justice for the family of the doctor raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
The next milestones are the recruitment of 1,500 drivers, the planned appointment of more than 11,000 constables before Durga Puja and the proposed provision of four cars and four motorcycles to every police station within a year.
