DT e-Paper, Friday, Decdember 20, 2017

Feature
17
FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2017
DT
‘999’- Our own ‘911’
The triple digit helpline number has been started as a pilot project and is soon to be a fullfledged
national service
• Mahmood Sadi
The number ‘911’ is not
alien to Bangladeshi
people. Because of the
popularity of Hollywood
movies and TV shows, a large
part of the urban and semi urban
population are well aware of the
fact that by dialling these three
magic numbers, US citizens can
get all sorts of emergency.
Bangladesh has its own ‘911’
and that is ‘999’. Ironically, most
people are not aware of it. This
is partly because the project of
providing emergency services
through this number has been
started as a pilot project basis
rather than being a full-fledged
service.
The policy makers however
said that the pilot project has
achieved ‘considerable’ success
and time has come to start the
service nationwide.
How it started
Because of the lack of proper
dissemination of information
most Bangladeshi citizens were
unaware of the fact that the
emergency services are actually
available. At present, dialling 100
would connect to Bangladesh
Police, 101 to Rapid Action
Battalion, 102 to fire services, 103
to ambulance service and 104 to
the Access to Information (A2I)
Programme under the Prime
Minister’s Office.
These short code emergency
services were initiated by the
A2I service of the PM’s office.
Interestingly, a study conducted
by the A2I office reveals that
these numbers don’t receive
satisfactory responses because
people feel reluctant to call
different numbers for getting
different services, rather they
prefer to call on one single
number for all the service.
Banking on that idea, the
Information and Communication
(ICT) Division of the government
decided to launch a one stop
service under its leveraging ICT
project.
Bangladesh has its own ‘911’ and that
is ‘999’. Ironically, most people are not
aware of it
The Bangladesh
Telecommunication Regulatory
Commission (BTRC) first allotted
either 2041 or 16666 short codes
for the help desk, but upon ICT
State Minister Zunaid Ahmed
Palak’s request, the code was
changed to a three-digit one.
After multiple changes, the
BTRC finally gave them the new
three digit short code, 999, to be
used as the national help desk
number. The number is toll-free.
What services are there?
The helpline was finally launched
under a pilot project on October
19, last year. After dialling 999,
one needs to press ‘1’ to get
ambulance service, ‘2’ for fire
service and ‘3’ for police service.
To get help from a live operator,
one needs to press ‘4’.
Within the first 100 days of the
launching of the helpline service,
it has received around 900,000
calls.
While a bulk share of those
calls were made to inquire about
the services in the offering, about
19,000 calls were made to ask
for different services including
ambulance, fire services and
police services.
The program was initiated with
a budget of Tk6 crore. A private
company named Multimedia
Content and Communication
Ltd (MCC) was given the task of
providing the helpline service.
Mahadi Hossain Shumon,
head of Innovation and Planning
of MCC said that a total of 100
people have been posted on the
helpline service in two shifts. He
said that now the helpline service
is available from 7am-10pm.
“Our people have training on
how to respond in an emergency
situation. They listen and note
down the calls and direct it to
appropriate service as per the
caller’s need.”
Pan for launching fullfledged
service
The ICT division of the
government has termed the
outcome of the pilot project as
a considerable success and now
wants to launch the helpline on a
full-fledged scale from June this
year.
Mohammad Monirul Islam,
Deputy Secretary of the ICT
Ministry and the program director
of the national helpline program
said that the program has
achieved considerable success.
Monirul said that the program
of National Helpline was taken up
on an experimental basis for two
months and it was supposed to
end last December. “We started
it on a trial basis so that basing
on the outcome, we could have
proceeded further. As we still
have budget to run the program
and it has achieved considerable
success, we plan to continue it
until June.”
After June the full-fledged
PHOTO: BIGSTOCK
national helpline will be
launched officially. “It will
be launched as part of the
government’s large project
on ‘Establishing Digital
Connectivity’. The project
proposal has already been placed
in the ECNEC. The helpline will
be operated under the direct
supervision of ICT division.”
State Minister of the ICT
Division, Zunaid Ahmed Palak
said that now, all sorts of
necessary services have been
facilitated for the citizens, just
with one number.
“The British had started the
short code in 1937, the US in 1968
and now we have started this in
2016,” he added.
Palak said that aside from the
999 number, the national help
desk service will also be available
for contact through their website,
or through social media including
Facebook, Viber, Whatsapp where
users will receive their required
services within 24 hours.
He also said that after the fullfledged
launching of the national
helpline, all existing helpline
services will be abolished and
there will be one unified helpline
number. •