In a move to cut down the number of cases where ambulances fail to get to the spot of an accident or casualty because of the increasing traffic in the city, the GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute that runs the 108 ambulances in the state has launched the Automatics Vehicle Location Tracker (AVLT) system.
After getting a total outlay of `70 lakh in the last State budget (2011-12), the group has deployed AVLT in all the 517 ambulances in the state. “This new technology will help us monitor the ambulances from time to time. We can actually see the movement of the ambulances and their status from our call centres. We can see if the ambulance is at the base location, its movement from the base to the scene, from scene to hospital, at hospital and from hospital back to the base. This will help us immensely in building efficiency in emergency care, as we can assign ambulances using the maps,” said Sridhar BN, Regional Chief Operating Officer, GVK EMRI.
The cost of each AVLT is `12,500 and the software installed at each of the call centres will help the officers seated there to communicate with the ambulances and accordingly dispatch officers.
However, at this stage, the project will not communicate with traffic signals and help divert traffic on receiving information about an approaching ambulance.
“That project has been proposed at a conceptual level. No detailed discussions have taken place as of now. We need to work on it with the traffic police,” added Sridhar.