PATNA: The Patna police's Dial-100 emergency service control room has the capacity to attend only 29 calls at a time for the population of more than 58.38 lakh in the district.According to Census 2011, the population of Patna district was 58,38,465 while the strength of Patna police is hardly around 10,000. The Dial-100 service has received average 5.8 lakh calls per month since January this year, according to the data provided by Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj.A police officer, who knows how the Dial-100 service works, said not only the lines are highly insufficient, but even the technology is outdated as it can't even display how many calls are on waiting if all the 29 lines are in use at a given time.The police headquarters woke from its slumber to make the control room effective only after Chief Justice Rajendra Menon of the Patna high court shared his experience in the courtroom on March 14 that even his call to Dial-100 service went unattended. After the TOI carried a report citing the CJ's observations that Patna zonal IG Nayyar Hasnain Khan asked Patna SSP to review the service and submit a report within 24 hours.When asked, IG Khan accepted that the capacity to attend only 29 calls in the Dial-100 service is insufficient."Looking at the volumes of calls received by the service, its capacity needs to be increased manifold. Huge resources and technical know-how are required for making these control rooms of police technologically advanced," he said, adding steps would be taken in these directions.Khan also said the control room and services would have to be upgraded as Patna has already been included in the list of smart cities.Khan said several other helpline numbers of Patna police are also active, but public are not aware of them. These numbers would be brought under one umbrella to create a unified command centre for district police in future."The SSP has submitted me the report after reviewing the service (100). Some issues have been highlighted and necessary steps would be taken to rectify them," Khan said, adding that orders have been issued for proper training of the persons at Dial-100 service.It was only after the review that some technical faults surfaced in the service as well as in the telecom operators' network and steps are being taken to rectify them.

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