Air ambulance facility, which was reserved only for a select few, will now soon be available for the residents of the State.With an aim to help people shift critical patients to leading hospitals outside of the State, Vyas Holidays Pvt ltd will launch a Raipur-based air ambulance service from around March 15.
With the launch of the service, people would be able to shift critically ill patients to top hospitals located in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai.The firm has also planned to line-in a charter flight for the service, Managing director of Vyas Travels Kirti Vyas said on Sunday. The air ambulance service is likely to be launched around mid-March, he said.
Presently, the service of air ambulance is only available in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. The service is also available in Hyderabad but in a privatised form operating under a luxury hospital.
“The service will be the first among the cities around Raipur like Nagpur, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Indore, Bhubaneswar,” Vyas said.The service would be available at Swami Vivekananda Airport in the city and people from across the State would be able to avail the service.
Vyas said a multi engine C-90 aircraft would be used both as an ambulance and a charter flight. It can carry one patient, two relatives, and a team of doctors and health officials. If necessary, the company could use a six-seater charter flight, he said.
“The service would be available for the people of Chhattisgarh at affordable cost because the value added tax on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) is only five per cent in the state,” Vyas said.
He said the air charter service can also be availed by private and Government corporate houses including SECl, NTPC, Bhilai Steel Plant and others.The cost for availing the service could be around Rs 75,000 per hour, he said. Besides, the relatives of the patients will have to pay the fee of the doctors and airport tax.
The total cost of shifting a critically-ill patient from Raipur to Mumbai would be around Rs 5 lakh. In case of using the ambulance as a charter flight, one will have to spend around Rs 80,000 per hour.