New technology for 108 service

BANGALORE: In an attempt to make way for emergency services even if the roads are congested, G V K Emergency Management and Research Institute, which runs 108 ambulance services plans to introduce new technology in ambulances.As per the plan, with the help of state government and Bangalore traffic police, all the ambulances in commercial areas will be able to transmit messages to the traffic signals, even before reaching the signal.“This is a first-of-its-kind technology in the country. The device will enable ambulances to coordinate with a traffic signal when it is 80 metres away from the signal. After the message is transmitted, the signal will automatically switch to green,” said D V Badrinath, Chief Operating Officer, G V K Emergency Management and Research Institute.However, the technology can be introduced only after the government approves the proposal. Bangalore traffic police have sought to look into the device and see how it functions before implementing the device.“We are looking at introducing an ‘Ambulance Priority Drive’. We welcome such ideas and are open to discussions with any group. However, we would like to see how this device would work. As of now, we are changing traffic signals manually, if such a technology is available, then traffic signals can be changed automatically,” said M A Saleem, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic).Most of the ambulances in the state operate using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology which provides a map from the spot of incident to the ambulance location.The ambulances also have the Automatic Vehicle Location System (AVLC) technology, that is connected with the call centre that can locate the nearest ambulance from the spot of accident. If introduced, this new technology will reduce the time ambulances spend at traffic signals.Currently, the 108 service has 517 ambulances in the state, with 58 ambulances in Bangalore urban and 12 in rural areas.The group is procuring 32 more ambulances in the next two months and plans to add around 250 more ambulances to the fleet by the end of the year.