Odisha launches additional 92 ambulances under 108 fleet

Bhubaneswar: In the wake of ambulance service failure reports doing the rounds in media, Odisha government launched additional 92 ambulances under 108 Ambulance Service here today.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched 24 ambulances under the 108 fleet in the first phase today. The remaining vehicles will be rolled out in phases across the state, said a press release.

The initiative was taken to improve the performance of emergency ambulance service particularly in tribal districts to meet the increasing demand for the service.

The State government has made a budget provision of Rs 90 crore for these additional ambulances.

The government through exclusive state budget funding has also provided for upgradation of 28 Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulances to Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances to strengthen the existing ambulance fleet.

Over 31 lakh people have been benefited from the ambulance service, which was launched to reduce both the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) in the state.

The government had launched 108 Emergency Medical Ambulance Service on March 5, 2013. Currently, there are 420 ambulances (364 BLS and 56 ALS) covering all 30 districts providing emergency medical service at free of cost.

In addition to the 108 ambulance service, the government launched a fleet of 500 ambulances under 102 Ambulance Service for transportation of pregnant mothers and ailing infants.