By IANS,
Shimla : Himachal Pradesh Friday signed an agreement with a private company to start round-the-clock, free-of-cost ambulance services in the state by the end of this year, Health Minister Rajeev Bindal said here.
“A PPP (public-private-partnership) agreement was signed between the government and Hyderabad-based company GVK-EMRI to run 108 ambulances in the state,” he told reporters.
He said in the first phase, the ambulances would start Oct 2 in Sirmaur, Solan, Una and Hamirpur districts and by Dec 25 all the districts would be covered, except tribal Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti districts.
In the tribal districts, the state government would run the ambulance services on its own.
GVK-EMRI chief executive officer Venkat Chengavalli said: “Himachal would be the first state in the country to have one ambulance for 75,000 people, which is close to the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards.”
GVK-EMRI runs 2,600 ambulances in 10 states and Himachal Pradesh would be the 11th state.