To widen coverage on emergency response network on National and State Highways and major district roads, Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corporation (MPRDC) will smarten up it with intelligent transportation system. According to sources, it would be first in the country and will be known as integrated accident response and traffic management system. Initially, there was a plan to keep it up to in a periphery of 20,000 kms excluding highways but now it would cover a radius of more than 25,000 kms including all major roads.

With this new initiative, response time to any accident will be reduced by placing more ambulances at highways.

According to the highly placed source, Ambulance services which were restricted to state highways, only, covering around 20,000 km area will become available for National Highways, PWD and RIRD roads also. For this, a contract has been signed with a private company last year. According to a senior company official, Pankaj Bhardwaj, Project incharge in the State, at present a total of 120 ambulances are available on calling number 1099 across the State. Now, there is a plan to augment the ambulance fleet which is equipped with new features. The new facility will start functioning from coming month of July. For the purpose, necessary technical testing and mapping etc. are underway. Madhya Pradesh is the first in the country which has set up integrated Accident Response System and Traffic Management Centre (ARS & TMC), a system that integrates emergency response with Intelligent Transportation Systems for the benefit of public. Previously, there was a financial arrangement of annual payment by corporation to the said company. From last year, there will be monthly payment to the company against each service. Mobile Data Terminal will be an add-on to these vehicles. With this upgradation, ambulance driver will be able to co-ordinate with hospital and call centre person at one click. This will help paramedics team of the ambulance to find out nearest hospital and provide necessary details about the condition of the victim to the emergency response team of the particular hospital before it could reach there. Under the road safety measure, MPRDC in 2014 signed contract with ARS T&TT with the construction of the command centre from ground up along with developing the operational systems. Talking to ‘The Hitavada’, the company official said that it would be premature to comment as to how much area of National Highway, PWD and RIDR will be covered as the mapping is underway. According to information state Call centre receives around 200 calls every day.