Anyone in distress, seeking an ambulance, police help or a fire brigade will soon no longer need to dial separate helpline numbers.

One emergency helpline number — 112 — will respond to all these emergencies.

So far, helplines 100 (police assistance), 108 (ambulance service, 1098 (police assistance for a child or woman in distress) and 101 (fire-brigade). Helpline 112, a central government initiative, will replace all these numbers shortly across Jharkhand, R.K. Mallick ADG (modernisation) at Ranchi police headquarters said.

East Singhbhum SP (rural) Piyush Pandey, now the SSP in-charge, who on Thursday attended a training programme for police officials from Kolhan on the new system, around 300 police officials from the twin districts of Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharsawan, from sub-inspectors to superintendents of police, attended the two-hour event from 11am at the SNTI conference hall in Bistupur.

Pandey said though Thursday’s training event was aimed at probationary sub-inspectors, seniors, including police inspectors, DSPs and West Singhbhum SP Indrajeet Mahatha also attended it.

Pandey said a team from the Pune-based Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) gave the training.

“It is an initiative of the Union home ministry and the aim behind it is to simplify the system of getting immediate help from the police, fire brigade and ambulance services by dialling a single number. At moments of great stress, a person in need may dial the wrong numbers in confusion and nervousness,” Pandey told The Telegraph.

He said the new single-helpline system will be in place in a month or so. “For handling and processing helpline 112, there will be a main control room at Ranchi and separate control rooms in each of the 24 districts across the state,” he said. “In the event a person needs help from the police, he or she will dial 112 from any point of place in the state. As soon as the number is dialled, it will reach the main control room in Ranchi and from Ranchi will inform the district control room concerned so that the local police can respond within five minutes maximum,” Pandey said.

He said the 112 number would be a toll-free and could be dialled from the keypad of a smartphone.

If there’s a more serious or emergent occasion, the person in distress can inform the main control room by pressing its power button thrice.