BHUBANESWAR: Odisha has added 84 more vehicles to its 108 emergency ambulance service fleet. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday unveiled the ambulances that were procured from exclusive State budget funding.
The State government has made a budget provision of `104 crore for operational and capital expenditure for the additional ambulances over a period of five years. The ambulances will be positioned in 27 districts.
Speaking on the occasion, Health and Family Welfare Minister Nabakishore Das said the additional ambulances will improve the response time and bring down the number of cancelled calls due to non availability of the service for various reasons.
In addition to the 108 fleet, the State has another fleet of 500 ambulances under Janani Express for transportation of pregnant women and sick infants. Over 60 lakh people have been benefited from 108 and Janani Express ambulance service in the State so far. Additional Chief Secretary Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra said with this Odisha will have one ambulance for 42,000 people as against the WHO standard of one ambulance for one lakh population.
The 108 ambulance service was launched in the State on March 5, 2013. Operated by Ziqitza Healthcare Ltd (ZHL) through a state of the art call center at Bhubaneswar, the fleet of 518 vehicles have been providing emergency medical service free across the State. State head of ZHL Sabyasachi Biswal also spoke.