(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Fishermen seafarers voyagers and others stuck in the Arabian Sea off the Gujarat coast will now be rescued by free-of-cost boat ambulances.The GVK EMRI 108 emergency road ambulance service which has been saving 110 lives daily in the state for the past seven years will start boat ambulance services by the end of this year.
Jashvant Prajapati COO of EMRI Gujarat told Khaleej Times that boats well-equipped with essential medical instruments and trained staff would ferry the patients in need to the nearest destination rather than taking the road adding that the service would be a boon in Gujarat which boasted the country’s longest-1600 km-coastline.
He said that a free-of-cost air ambulance service for emergencies would also be launched in Gujarat soon with the help of two helicopters.
The ‘108’ ambulance service which was started with the cooperation of the state government in 2007 with only 14 high-speed vans now has 550 state-of-the-art vehilcles that attend some 2200 calls everyday. Meanwhile in the coastal Nargol village of Gujarat’s southern Valsad district where ‘108’ services are not easily available an auto ambulance service has been started to ferry people from inaccessible places in the village to hospitals in Vapi and Umbergaon towns some 30 km away.
Nargol with a population of 13000 does not have a full-fledged hospital but thanks to the village council now six three-wheeler auto-rickshaws work as ambulances for patients requiring immediate medical care and drivers are paid by the council.
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