Unanswered calls, delayed from the “Dial 100” mark; Telangana police say response time progress

Although citizens raised questions about the response time of the DIAR 100 emergency helpline, the police and the Hyderabad Police Commissioner said the response time had improved. This image is for representation only. |Picture source:

In recent months, Telangana citizens have entered social media to express concerns about the Dial 100 emergency helpline – highlighting issues such as delays, unanswered calls, and confusion at callers’ locations. Whether it’s a road accident, street fight, harassment or noise complaint, the common question that surfaces online is: Is the help reaching fast enough?

“What if we really do in an emergency, even the dial 100 is not responding,” said X user.

Another user responded to a thread about the same question and said, “…I can't place the emergency call 100 because even though so many police officers were convinced by phone on some other phone numbers, they didn't get the support of the police.” The user also shared screenshots of repeated unanswered calls.

The role of mobile towers in response time

Meanwhile, Hyderabad's joint police chief Parimala Hana Nutan said the department participated in every dial 100 dialing call. “Our average response time in Hyderabad city is about six minutes. In rural areas it's a little longer – 10 to 12 minutes, mainly due to the distance between the mobile tower and the actual location of the caller.”

Response time was down nearly 50% compared to the same period last year, when the average of the April-June quarter reached 13 minutes. According to official data, in 2024, the Hyderabad Commission processed 2,98,511 calls with an average response time of 6.25 minutes.

Challenges in rural areas

Explaining the challenges in rural areas, Ms. Nudan said: “The nearest mobile tower may be 2 to 5 km from the caller. Even if the patrol vehicle arrives at the location, it still needs to travel another 500 meters to reach a kilometre to reach the exact location. But we have made every effort to respond quickly.”

Hyderabad 8,000 calls a day

When the system received calls from hundreds of thousands of people, Hyderabad City police filtered spam and inaction-free calls to focus on real-time emergencies. “We are approaching nearly 8,000 calls a day,” Ms Nutan added. “In many cases, the problem is solved by the phone itself without the need for on-site response. Nevertheless, based on these emergency calls, we fly about 150 to 200 times a day.”

About 1,000 calls per day in Cyborg

In Cyberabad, a city center with relatively low call volumes, authorities are working to improve response efficiency. “Our average response time used to be about 20 minutes. Now, we're reducing it to 10 to 12 minutes. We get 800 to 1,000 calls a day,” said DCP B. Sai Sri, Special Branch of Seberbard. “We have mapped high-density areas such as Attapur, Mailardevapally, Petbasheerabad, Jeedimetla and Suraram that contributed to most of these calls. Based on this data, we have added resources in these areas to ensure faster response times.”

To meet the demand, the Cyberabad Police Department allocated two teams to each police station, especially during peak hours at night, when calls were usually spikes. In the Rachakonda committee, which received 2,41,742 calls in 2024, the average response time was 8.37 minutes.

DCP SAI SRI clarified: “The system is on a first come first come first served basis without manual intervention, DCP SAI SRI addresses concerns about discarded calls or priorities. In addition, Telangana’s Dial 100 is called 100 by Telangana, which is managed by outsourcers in the form of a call center. Therefore, the problem of any call is not directly passed on our information.

The frustration of the first few seconds

Many callers also expressed frustration, and personal details and location can be verified for the first few seconds of each call. “If the caller's GPS is enabled, the system will automatically detect the location. But individual cell data is usually inaccurate, so in most cases we will call back to confirm the exact location.”

Officials say back-end operations are constantly evolving to meet public expectations. The Daily Situation Report (DSR) has been submitted to the Director General of Police (DGP) and performance gaps have been reviewed. Real-time adjustments to the deployment are made based on the call mode and timing of the area.