112 Unified Emergency Call Handling System is now in place in Albania
The 112 European unified emergency number (for police, ambulance and firefighters) call handling system is now in place in Albania thanks to the 3 years long support of PAMECA IV and funding from the EU, making Albania the first non-EU country in the region to have adopted it. It is currently being used only in Tirana with the technical potential to be extended countrywide in the near future.
The revival of the 112 project came with the launching of PAMECA IV three years ago, although not initially part of its envisaged activities.
Under its global objective for ensuring a safe environment for the Albanian citizens, PAMECA IV embarked seriously in all the stages for making it a reality, starting with the assistance in drafting the technical specifications for purchasing the call handling equipment with the EU funding, coordinating the work among the various Albanian institutions and agencies in an effort to make them understand the importance of such Europe-wide service and engage themselves in this complex and important task.
The involvement of PAMECA IV has been crucial in that it played a pivot role not only in terms of coordination throughout the whole process and in its all specific stages, but also in providing high level expertise with top experts in the area of emergency call handling systems.
PAMECA IV extended its support far beyond the initially agreed terms, involving itself intensively and on a daily basis for over 5 months in the reconstruction works of the Tirana Local Police Directorate Operational Room since that became the designated premises for hosting the 112 call handling system. During this period four engineers worked almost simultaneously to ensure proper functioning of the call handling system, up to the standard construction and electrical works to ensure that the half a million euros worth of EU investment for a vital service to the Albanian citizens would not be wasted.
112 saves lives, but if people do not know about it, it is all the same whether the service exists or not. To this end, PAMECA IV poured human and financial resources into designing and conducting an information and dissemination campaign for the 112 service in Tirana.
Now, all residents of Tirana, and hopefully soon, everyone all over the country will have to dial only 112 for all types of emergencies.