In a first-of-its-kind initiative, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Wednesday launched ‘Boat Ambulance Service’.

The service, aimed to facilitate fishermen, was launched with two boats. In near future 10 more boat ambulance services would be available for those who are offshore. It is worth mentioning that Gujarat has longest 1600-km-long coastline and more sizable population of the State depends on fishing and related activities. The Boat Ambulance Service has been launched around seven major fishing ports. Nearly 1.50-lakh fishermen venture out into high sea 8-12 days in a row. Each fishing boat has to have one captain, 3 assistants/employees and one trained emergency medical technician.

Meanwhile Rupani and his deputy Nitin Patel also launched launched ‘Platinum Hour’ 108 Mobile Application service with a view to ultimately covering all the citizens for emergency/accident.

Speaking on the occasion, CM Rupani said the Platinum Hour 108-Mobile Application has five modules integrated to voice-paper works to reach the spot fast, locating its way to the nearest medical treatment out of 4,000 hospitals in the state, blood banks and other emergency requirements.

The 108-Mobile Application helps connect the caller from the accident spot to Emergency Response Centre, indicating the journey on Google map, approximate time to reach the spot, information about blood requirement, informing the relatives of the victim to reach the hospital with address.

He appealed people to download the application in their mobile and keep their medical history handy, virtually in their hand, creating a data for paperless health facility.