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Mumbai’s Ambulances Try To Beat The Traffic On Two Wheels

A fleet of two-wheeler ambulances to provide quick response treatment before a full-fledged ambulance arrives.

Source: BloombergQuint
Source: BloombergQuint

In a city where traffic snarls and bottlenecks are a way of life, a few minutes’ delay could well cost a life. That’s why the city is trying out a new service—a fleet of two-wheeler ambulances to provide quick response treatment before a full-fledged ambulance reaches the spot.

In August last year, 10 Royal Enfield Thunderbirds equipped with all the necessary care-giving medical facilities hit the streets of Mumbai as a pilot project.

“Based on the first seven months of operations, the government may decide to increase the number,” said Amol Pandit, who is in charge of Mumbai’s 108 ambulance service. The motorcycles augment the around 90 ambulances owned by the government in the city.

“Once a call is made to 108, which is toll free, an operator in Pune assigns a motorcycle ambulance to a particular incident based on the severity of the medical condition,” said Pandit. “On an average, doctors that ride the motorcycles take up three or four incidents a day, and have a response time of 18 minutes.”

They generally perform the role of paramedics. Maharashtra is the fourth state after Kerala, Karnataka, and Gujarat to employ them. More than just improving the efficiency of the ambulance services of the government, which are free of cost, Pandit says there is a need to create awareness.

In several situations, citizens try to move a patient, using public transport or their own vehicles, to a hospital. It is important, according to Pandit, for citizens to start trusting ambulance operators to save lives.