CATS has a central control room, with the widely publicised phone number, 1099, at which anybody can make an unmetered (free) telephone call to ask for ambulance help. There are over 26 ambulances stationed in various accident-prone areas of the Capital, all equipped with two-way radios. On getting a call, the control room relays the SOS to the nearest ambulance within moments. The radios can then be used to inform the nearest government hospital to be prepared for the victim's admission and treatment.

``CATS has been providing an important service to innumerable hit-and-run victims on the Capital's roads. But they were being constrained by the absence of a reliable and quick communications system, which wouldhelp them to coordinate between ambulances and hospitals in those crucial minutes leading to medical attention. That is why they approached us,'' says Rajiv Kataria, CEO of Procol, the Delhi-based trunking service operator for Motorola.

Realising the spirit behind the effort, Procol decided to help, but not on the basis of complete charity. ``As the unit cost of the radios is very high, we decided to sell the instruments and the air-time at half the market rate (the per unit cost for a Motorola radio being Rs 20,000 and the usual air time, Rs 1,050 per month) to CATS,'' says Kataria.

Why did a cash-rich multinational like Motorola shy away from providing full support?

``Motorola does not have a written policy of donating two-way radios, but we keep looking for opportunities where we could add some value. For instance, after the cyclone in Porbandar in Gujarat, the government had the funds to buy radios, but the crunch was in the timing. We made sure that we delivered the radio sets within hours. On theother hand, after the Andhra Pradesh cyclone tragedy and the Latur earthquake before that, we spontaneously donated several sets,'' says Harjeet Rekhi, senior market planner, Motorola.

How is the two-way radio better than other modes of communication in an emergency?

``It is infrastructure independent. In other words, it's a complete communicator with another two-way radio in even the most adverse situation. It also allows automatic conferencing through the conference mode, which is necessary in a crunch situation. For instance, in a raging inferno, the fire brigade chief can just pick up his handset and issue commands to the fire-fighters and vice versa,'' answers Rekhi. But the instrument is proving to be a vital communication link in many other unforeseen situations. Let us consider the scene at the site of a bomb blast, for instance. If the casualties are very high, the ambulance reaching first can ask for a replenishment of more vans.

``The response time of the ambulances has decreased considerablyafter adopting this communication channel,'' says G C Joshi, project administrator for CATS and additional secretary in the Delhi government. ``Where the response time used to be around 20 minutes earlier, we now can reach any accident site in the Capital within about nine minutes.''

It is not that Motorola is the only private benefactor for the project.

``Another corporate player, RPG Pagers, has installed a pager at our control room where one can inform the control room through a pager at the number 963-200-1099. Similarly, MTNL does not charge for the calls made to CATS,'' says Joshi. The response time of the corporate world for genuine attempts at charity could not have been better.