India's Home Ministry has proposed to set up model police stations across the country. Above, a file photo of police women officers at work. Raveendran/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Whether to report a theft or register an employee, going to a police station in India is often an administrative ordeal.

Now India’s Home Ministry wants to make it easier to find the right person to talk to, report a crime and even relieve oneself at a select group of police stations across the country.

Prompted by a call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for smarter policing, the Home Ministry has proposed to set up one model police station in each of the country’s 29 states with features such as automated booths for the public to report crimes, computers, Wi-Fi access and toilets.

The new policing units, named SMART police stations, (the acronym stands for strict, sensitive, modern, mobile, alert, accountable, reliable, responsive, techno-savvy and trained) will be “citizen-friendly and clean,” the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a press statement Monday evening.

Each will have a waiting area with ventilation and solar lighting, clean drinking water and proper toilets – basic amenities that are presently lacking in many of the country’s 15,000 local police stations.

The model stations are expected to have a receptionist to guide visitors to the relevant officer or file a complaint by going to a computerized kiosk, which would be linked with a back-end system as well as closed-circuit television for tracking follow-up action.

State governments have until Jan. 31 to tell the Home Ministry where they will locate the new stations. The funding for the pilot project will primarily come from the central government but “efforts will also be made to involve the private sector,” the ministry said in the statement.

Mr. Modi in November called for a police force that was strict, sensitive, modern mobile, alert accountable, reliable and responsive in a speech during which the man who was then India’s top cop, Ranjit Sinha, appeared to nod off.

Twenty-nine police stations equipped with facilities that other countries might consider standard issue might not sound like great shakes towards reforming India’s police force. But given that policing is strictly a state issue, this baby step could be a significant one.