Autorickshaw ambulance services to be launched in Kochi on Monday

The city will soon have autorickshaws divers providing ambulance services, thanks to Kochi corporation.
For representational purposes
For representational purposes

KOCHI: The city will soon have autorickshaws divers providing ambulance services, thanks to Kochi corporation. The local body is launching the autorickshaw ambulance project with the support of the Ernakulam Jilla Autorickshaw Drivers Cooperative Society (EJADCS) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).

The autorickshaw ambulance system, which will be functional from Monday, is designed to cater to the needs of Covid patients. The service planned for areas under the Kochi corporation includes transporting patients to hospitals, ensuring the supply of medicines, oximeter and thermometer en route, and facilitating the movement of medical staff to patients’ houses, a corporation official said.

Under the initiative, eight fully-equipped autorickshaws will be deployed as emergency vehicles or ambulances in eight zones (Kochi 1 & 2, Palluruthy, Central, Edappally, Palarivattom, Vyttila and Pachalam) for round-the-clock service. As they will be operating in two shifts, a total of 16 autorickshaw drivers have been trained. 

“Volunteers trained the autorickshaw drivers on precautions to be taken while handling patients, provision of medical care and the use of mobile application. They were provided with safety kits and necessary medical equipment including portable oxygen cabin, pulse oximeter and infrared thermometer,” said the corporation official.

The corporation’s development standing committee chairperson P R Ranish, education and sports standing committee chairperson V A Sreejith, EJADCS president Syamandhabhadran, secretary K Ibrahimkutty, C-HED director Dr Rajan and RTO Shaji Madhavan were among those present during the training programme.

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