HYDERABAD: The Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI), that runs `108', the helpline for medical, police and fire emergencies is all set to roll out to rural Andhra Pradesh. Plans are afoot to launch the rural initiative on January 26.

EMRI's CEO Venkat Changavalli said they would initially begin with Medak, Chittoor and East Godavari districts. "Each month, we are aiming at adding four districts and covering the entire State by May-end. We are hiring and training 1,500 people on salaries averaging Rs. 5,000 a month before deploying them in the rural areas", he said.

RCH programme

The rural initiative was enabled with the 310 ambulances provided by the State Government under the Centrally-sponsored Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) II programme.

Since its launch on August 15, 2005, EMRI, supported by Satyam Foundation, has saved 6,641 lives and handled 1.37 lakh emergency calls from across 50 towns in the State, covering 2.5 crore population. The 76-seater call centre in the outskirts of the State capital has so far handled 36 lakh calls, averaging about 10,000 a day.

Explaining the logistics involved, Mr. Changavalli said: "Under the public-private partnership model we have signed an agreement with the State Government.

District Collectors and Superintendents of Police have been supportive in making the network effective. Already, locations for stationing the state-of-the-art ambulances have been identified."

Also, EMRI has tied up with 842 private hospitals across Andhra Pradesh to provide medical care free of cost for the first 24 hours of admission.

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