3 years ago
Nepal Telecommunication Authority is preparing to make different numbers used during emergencies the same. According to NEA, preparations are underway to integrate three different numbers: 100 for police, 101 for fire brigade and 102 for ambulance.
According to NEA Director Amber Sthapit, NEA has prepared necessary procedures for this and sent it to Ministry of Communications and Information Technology only a week ago. According to the procedure, police, fire brigade and ambulance will now have the same number 100.
This means you can now dial 100 as an emergency number and call for emergency services such as police, ambulance and fire department if needed.
According to the established director, entire responsibility of this system will be with Nepal Police.
NEA has informed that procedure has been sent to Ministry of Communications to delegate its authority to Ministry of Home Affairs after conducting necessary study.
Now, Ministry of Communications will discuss the procedure and give the responsibility to Ministry of Home Affairs.
NEA is going to make number used in all emergency services the same as per ITU standard 'E. 164'. According to ITU standard 'E. 164', same number will be applicable for such emergency services i.e. public service answering point 9PSAP in all countries.
According to law, number of emergency services in the United States is currently 911.112 is in use in Europe. In some countries, even 100 have been used. But the standard numbers are '911' and '112'.
However, in the case of Nepal, it is being used as emergency number is being reminded by everyone. As the required budget for this has to be provided by Nepal Telecommunication Authority, it can be estimated that this program will move forward only from the next fiscal year.
Because in the current Fiscal Year 2077/78, NEA had allocated Rs. 500,000 for its study and work procedure. It is estimated that it will cost more than Rs 1 billion to implement this system across the country.
