CHENNAI: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami flagged off a total of nine 108 ambulances as a token of launching as many vehicles, from the Secretariat on Thursday. The ambulances were fitted with life saving equipment at the cost of Rs 24. 77 crore.
There are 1,180 ambulances in the State and 25.34 lakh pregnant women benefit from the service. The ambulance service also caters to 1.2 crore people, a release said. The Chief Minister, in March, announced in the Assembly 500 new ambulances would be added to the fleet to strengthen the service in the State.
Palaniswami had launched the first set of 90 ambulances in August. Addressing reporters, Health Minister C Vijayabaskar said, “Over 2.92 lakh Covid-19 patients have so far been shifted to various hospitals by 108 ambulance. The response time of the ambulance in the State stands at 8.03 minutes.
This will be further reduced in the coming days as the government is planning to launch 200 more vehicles.” The response time in developed countries in 8 minutes and Tamil Nadu is on a par with them, the Minister added. “GPS will soon be fitted to the vehicles. Callers will be able to track the movement of the ambulance through android phone and the government is working on a software to facilitate this.
The move will cut down multiple calls for the same emergency,” Vijayabaskar said. Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, Chief Secretary K Shanmugham and other officials were present.