Telecom snags ground Telangana ambulances

Hyderabad: Two youths met with a minor accident in the city limits on New Year morning but what turned out to be major was the failure to get connected to the 108 ambulance service centre.

Passersby who tried calling the 108 ambulance service got connected to Andhra Pradesh call centre and the Telangana one got connected after several attempts which delayed medical service to the youths.

When the issue was raised with the Arogya Telangana centre, it was found that all telecom operators, except Reliance Jio, had separated their circles into TS and AP for the 108 ambulance service.

Mr Rakesh Mekagunda who tried for the 108 service said, “A few strangers met with an accident. When we called the 108 service, I was told that the call has been connected to AP call centre and after many attempts the call was diverted to Telangana. This TS and AP issue should be sorted out so that people in emergency will get quick medical response.”

Resident Rikit Shahi said he too faced the same issue when he tried calling the ambulance service.  

The issue was taken up with Municipal Minister Mr K.T. Rama Rao, who directed the National Health Mission (NHM) and the telecom authority to check why were calls were getting connected to the AP centre.

In response, NHM said, “With regard to the 108, all the telecom operators have separated their circles into Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, except Reliance Jio. Only Jio calls are landing in AP, irrespective of where the service number is being dialled from. The issue has brought to the notice of Reliance and they have assured to rectify it.”

The TS call centre with more than 90 lines and several operators working round the clock, often received more than 1,000 calls an hour from across the State. 

Operators had less than 1.5 minutes to collect information about the nature of the accident, place, address of victim and other details from the callers.