After a successful run of cashless-treatment scheme for victims of road crashes on Gurgaon-Jaipur expressway (National Highways 8), the Centre is set to launch the scheme on the Vadodara-Mumbai stretch.
The 412-kilometre stretch of the Hational Highway, which also forms an important link between Delhi-Mumbai, will have the cashless facility of treatment for victims of road accidents. The Gurgaon-Jaipur has already covered under cashless treatment scheme for road crash victims for over a year now.
The Ministry for Road Transport and Highways has now extended this project to provide cashless treatment within the first 48 hours of injury — covering medical expenses up to Rs 30,000 for all crash victims on Mumbai-Vadodara stretch on NH-8.
A private insurance major has bagged this project for one year at Rs 7 crore, which the Ministry earmarked for this project. The project aims to provide quick response by advance life support ambulances and immediate shifting of crash victims to nearby hospitals.
In the case of Gurgaon-Jaipur stretch, while the Government had earmarked Rs 20 crore for the first pilot project, the expense in the first year did not exceed Rs 6 crore. ICICI lombard had bagged the project as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative.
In first two months of its roll out in Gurgaon-Jaipur stretch over 300 accidents attended by ambulances within 11 minutes after a crash was reported and about 110 patients received cashless treatment in private empanelled hospitals.
Along with Mumbai-Vadodara, the ministry has also awarded a similar project for Ranchi-Rargaon-Mahulia stretch of NH-33. The Government has been pushing the idea with insurance companies to replicate the model on other major accident prone stretches claiming that the fall in fatalities will reduce their financial outgo in settling claims at an annual cost of Rs 500-600 crore.
“Although the project has been a great success so far, the biggest challenge still is to make the toll free number (1033) more popular among road users so that they cab easily report an incident to the dedicated call centre,” said an official in the Ministry.According to different surveys, if road crash victims are shifted to hospital and proper medication is provided in the first hour, fatalities can reduce by 50 per cent.