BENGAL LAUNCHES 900 EMERGENCY VEHICLES AS SUVENDU ADHIKARI TARGETS A RADICAL REDUCTION IN POLICE RESPONSE TIMES
October 10, 2026
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday launched 900 vehicles under the state’s Emergency Response Support System (ERSS-112), announcing an overhaul of police infrastructure and setting an ambitious target to reduce delays in responding to emergencies across the state.
The launch took place at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground, where Adhikari unveiled 450 four-wheelers and an equal number of motorcycles intended to strengthen the police response network. He said the rollout marked the beginning of a wider modernisation programme aimed at enabling officers to reach crime scenes, accidents and other emergencies more quickly.
Adhikari put the average emergency response time of West Bengal Police at approximately 90 minutes, contrasting it with the 10–15 minutes taken by Kolkata Police. He attributed the difference partly to the metropolitan force’s greater availability of personnel and vehicles and urged the state police to improve its performance.
Pointing to Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, where emergency responses were reported to take between six and 10 minutes, the chief minister questioned why Bengal could not achieve comparable results. He called on senior officers to treat the reduction of response times as a priority and ensure that the newly deployed vehicles translated into faster assistance for citizens.
The government’s next target is to provide every police station in West Bengal with four cars and four motorcycles within one year. To support the expansion, the state cabinet has approved the recruitment of 1,500 drivers, Adhikari said.
The chief minister also criticised the condition of several police stations, arguing that basic infrastructure required urgent attention. Referring to visits to Watgunge and Ekbalpore police stations in Kolkata, he said some buildings appeared nearly a century old and lacked essential facilities, including adequate closed-circuit television systems and fire extinguishers. He insisted that such deficiencies could no longer be ignored and called for comprehensive improvements to police facilities.
Adhikari emphasised that emergency management requires coordination beyond the police force alone. He called for closer cooperation among the police, civil defence and disaster management authorities to improve responses to accidents, natural disasters and other crises.
Praising police leadership for maintaining order during the recent bypolls in two Assembly constituencies, the chief minister singled out Director General of Police Siddhinath Gupta and senior IPS officer Javed Shamim for their role in ensuring that the electoral contests passed without bloodshed.
The chief minister also reiterated the government’s commitment to transparent recruitment and announced that more than 11,000 constables would be appointed before Durga Puja. He contrasted the present recruitment process with that of the previous administration, asserting that greater transparency was now a priority.
Adhikari reaffirmed a zero-tolerance approach towards drug abuse and attacks on women, while also reiterating his commitment to securing justice for the family of the doctor who was raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
The deployment of 900 vehicles represents a substantial addition to the state police’s emergency response resources. Whether the initiative achieves its stated objective will depend on staffing, operational coordination, maintenance and the ability of police stations to deploy personnel promptly when calls are received. The government has presented the launch as the first major step towards building a faster and more responsive policing system across West Bengal.
