Ambulances lent to PMC for pandemic returned damaged

THE COVID-19 DISAD-VAN-TAGE

Pvt van owners say 70-odd vehicles are in a shocking state after 5 months, with broken parts, fi lth, rust and more; they say they cannot aff ord repairs or to take them back in this state

As the panic and urgency surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic seems to slowly calm down, a series of disappointments have come to the fore for health and emergency workers who fought at the forefront of the outbreak, or made major sacrifices for most of this year.

One such discouraging development has emerged this week for a large group of city-based private owners of 70-odd ambulances. These van owners had lent out their emergency vehicles for a small fee to the beleaguered Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) at the peak of the pandemic over nearly five months, so that patients could be ferried back and forth from hospitals efficiently.

On Tuesday, however, when they went to the PMC’s vehicle depot in Mukundnagar to finally reclaim their vehicles, a major shock awaited. The abject, run-down and broken-down condition of their ambulances left them rubbing their eyes and worried for what the future held in their line of work.

Now, they have blamed the civic administration for damaging their ambulances to this terrible extent, and refused to take back their vehicles.

Further, the private ambulance owners have asserted that since PMC was in possession of the vehicles when they were so badly damaged, the civic body needs to foot the high cost of repairs.

In the first half of 2020, when the number of COVID-19 cases had started increasing despite the stringent lockdown, the Pune district collector had in May issued orders to acquire private ambulances to ferry virus-positive patients. Based on this, private owners submitted their ambulances to PMC.


For the last many months, these loaned ambulances were being helmed mostly by drivers of the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML), who were on COVID-19 duty with PMC.

After COVID-19 cases have reportedly gone down in the last month or more, the private ambulance owners received calls from PMC last week, asking them to take back their ambulances. Some of them then visited the vehicle depot, only to find that their vans were scratched, had entire metal parts ripped off and paint coming off amid rust. Inside these vehicles as well, seats were torn or benches and speedometers broken, entire wooden flooring was decaying, and filth was strewn everywhere. Forget sanitising in light of the outbreak, or even a basic cleaning job, the entire ambulances were rendered almost unusable during their stint with the authorities.

Balasaheb Hingane, who owns an ambulance and serves as president of the Pune Ambulance Association, Sassoon, lamented, “Since we have to carry patients, who are mostly in a serious condition, we always maintain our ambulances well to avoid breakdowns. We were expecting similar maintenance from PMC when they acquired our vans. Instead, we were stunned to see the condition of our vans after five months. They had never seen such terrible days before.”

The group believes their vehicles were not used properly, causing these significant damages. Sagar Lokhande, another ambulance owner, said, “When I came to collect the van, I found that front left side had fallen off — and PMC had the audacity to hand it over without repairs! We cannot run ambulances in such a bad condition. We have asked them to repair the vans first. Only then can we take them back.”

The vehicle owners also explained that although they were paid for loaning out their ambulances, the modest amount would not even suffice for the repairs needed, leaving them financially bereft as they had no earnings during lockdown months. Sameer Attar, another ambulance owner who visited the vehicle depot, said, “PMC agreed to pay us Rs 1,600 in daily charges. Some of us have received a cheque of Rs 1,40,000 by that rate. But considering the damage to our vehicles, we will have to spend that entire amount or more on repairs. Nothing will be left for us to run our families.”

When contacted about this development, PMC deputy commissioner Nitin Udas, who is in charge of the vehicle depot, only said, “After the ambulance owners pointed out some damages, we decided that PMC will bear the cost of repair of these vehicles as they were in the civic body’s custody.”