Unanswered calls, delays from ‘Dial 100’ flagged; Telangana police says response time progressed

Telangana citizens express concerns over Dial 100 emergency helpline response time, unanswered calls. Hyderabad and Cyberabad Police said the response time has improved.

In recent months, citizens across Telangana have taken to social media to voice concerns about the Dial 100 emergency helpline — highlighting issues such as delays in response, calls going unanswered, and confusion around caller locations. Whether it’s road accidents, street brawls, harassment, or even noise complaints, the common question surfacing online is: Is help arriving fast enough?

An X user said, “When even Dial 100 doesn’t respond what if we are really in an emergency?”

Responding to a thread about the same issue, another user said, “.... I couldn’t place an emergency call 100, reason ?? Failed to get support from police even after convincing so much on phone thru some other number.” The user also shared screenshots of repeated unanswered calls.

Meanwhile, Parimala Hana Nutan, Joint Commissioner of Police (Administration and Coordination), Hyderabad said that the department attends to every single Dial 100 call that comes their way. “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 caller’s actual location.”

This marks nearly a 50% reduction in response time compared to the same period last year, when the average peaked at 13 minutes during the April–June quarter. In 2024, the Hyderabad commissionerate handled 2,98,511 calls, maintaining an average response time of 6.25 minutes, according to official data.

Explaining the challenges in rural areas, Ms. Nutan said, “The nearest mobile tower could be 2 to 5 kilometres away from the caller. Even after the patrol vehicle reaches that spot, it may still need to travel another 500 metres to a kilometre to get to the exact location. But we make every effort to respond swiftly.”

While the system receives calls running into lakhs, Hyderabad city police filter out spam and non-actionable calls to focus on real-time emergencies. “We answer nearly 8,000 calls every day,” Ms. Nutan added. “In many instances, issues are resolved over the phone itself, without needing a field response. Still, we register around 150 to 200 FIRs daily based on these emergency calls.”