The PCR vans ready to attend to complaints in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, May 18: The modern police control room (PCR) here, which was inaugurated in March, has been successful in containing crime and providing quick service to the citizens.

This was revealed at a review meeting of the PCR for April. Acting quickly on the instructions of the control room, the PCR vans saved the lives of many people by taking them to the hospitals in time.

Four people, who suffered sunstroke, could be saved as they were rushed to hospitals in time by these vans. Similarly, 150 people injured in road accidents also received timely medical treatment as the PCR vans rushed them to hospitals.

“The modern police control room was inaugurated on March 9 this year. Since then it has served the people dedicatedly. In April, we found the results to be satisfactory as the PCR vans, which were centrally monitored by the new control room, performed well during emergency,” said deputy commissioner of police Himanshu Lal.

These PCR vans have helped 200 people found drunk and lying on the roads in reaching them their house after medical examination. They have also picked three destitute women and one boy from the roadside and accommodated them in short stay homes.

At present, there are 26 PCR vehicles patrolling the city, which are controlled by the newly developed advanced police control room located at the DCP office. These vehicles have been provided to all the 17 police stations to patrol in their respective police limits.

Each vehicle is provided with one special police officer and four home guards and one driver for every shift with three shifts a day. Nearly 390 staff members handle these vans. Police sources also said that the modern police control room receives nearly 1,300 to 1,500 phone calls daily. About 27,000 calls were attended only in April.

“The callers enquire about several matters ranging from telephone numbers of police stations in the state to contact numbers of hospitals and locations of various places. Senior citizens even call for the help during emergency needs,” said the DCP.

Chief minister Naveen Patnik inaugurated the control room on March 9. It was fitted with 30 computers to track and analyse calls. The control room and the vans had also been installed with modern gadgets such as Geo Positioning System (GPS) and Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) system that helped locate these vehicles and act according to instructions from the control room.