Chief Minister Hemant Soren today inaugurated the Air Ambulance Service in Jharkhand from State Hanger. On the occasion, the CM said, “Corona has taught us the importance of strengthening the emergency health facility. Apart from Corona, today we keep getting information about many new and serious diseases from various sources. To fight these diseases, we are trying to strengthen the health infrastructure in the state. At the same time, there are many diseases in which it becomes necessary to go out of the state for better treatment. Sometimes the distance between life and death is very less, in such a situation there is a lot of difficulty in taking the patient by road or rail. In case of emergency, if timely treatment is available to the sick person, many lives can be saved. Keeping these things in mind, the Air Ambulance Service has been started today.”

Soren said that it is not that only those who can pay will be able to use this service, it is our intention to take those who cannot pay according to need through air ambulance and provide health services. He said that whether it is a politician, a government employee or a common citizen, healthcare should be equal for all. People on a large scale here go to other states for better medical treatment using air ambulances. Sometimes a situation arises where there is paucity of time. This has been an attempt to reduce the lack of time in this. This effort is not limited to the treatment of other states only; further links are yet to be added.

The CM said that it is the endeavour of the State Government to make helipads on the roadside at various places and the people injured in serious road accidents can be taken to the hospital on time. He said that the government has put forward the idea of making better efforts in the health sector before the people of the state and hopes that this service will save the lives of many people. And this air ambulance service will prove to be a milestone for the state. He said that our government is determined to develop social infrastructure like education and health and we are making continuous efforts in this direction so that quality can be brought into the lives of common people. Air ambulance service is the result of our sincere efforts.

Soren said that till now the common citizens of the state had to struggle a lot to get Air Ambulance Service in case of emergency. There was no such dedicated cell, where air ambulance service could be easily obtained by establishing contact. He said that air ambulances could be made available in the state after a lot of effort by establishing contact with the air ambulance service provider in metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. Also, its cost was so high that it was beyond the reach of the people. This service has been launched with the idea of solving these problems and providing cheap and accessible “air ambulance service” to the people of the state in case of a health emergency.

The CM said that a state level cell has been constituted for ‘Air Ambulance Service’ by the Civil Aviation Division. Now the people of the state can get the service of air ambulance by contacting them by telephone or through e-mail. The applicant will be informed about the possible expenditure according to the destination on the phone itself. After the consent of the applicant, provision has been made to prepare the aircraft within 02 hours by the air ambulance operator, so that the needy can be taken to the destination as soon as possible. Under this service, a provision has also been made to reschedule the flight for the convenience of the common citizens. The CM said that at present New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Varanasi, Lucknow and Tirupati have been identified as major destinations from Ranchi. Apart from Ranchi, this service will also be available in Deoghar, Bokaro, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Giridih and Dumka.

State Health Minister Banna Gupta, Agriculture Minister Badal, MLA Irfan Ansari, MLA Rajesh Kachhap, Chief Secretary Sukhdev Singh, Development Commissioner Arun Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Vandana Dadel, Secretary to Chief Minister Vinay Kumar Choubey, Director of Birsa Airport K.L.Agarwal, Capt. S.P. Sinha and other senior officials and a large number of dignitaries were present on the occasion.