Now, air ambulance service to take off from seven cities

RANCHI: Chief minister Hemant Soren on Friday inaugurated an air ambulance service at the state hangar at Birsa Munda International Airport. He also launched a portal for the purpose. Health minister Banna Gupta, agriculture minister Badal Patralekh, several Congress MLAs and senior government officials were present at the ceremony.
Although the service under the state department of civil aviation was launched on Friday, the aircraft - a twin engine King Air C90 - will officially ferry its first patient on May 1. Suresh Khandelwal, a patient who is undergoing treatment in Hazaribag, will be flown to Indore for further treatment.
The civil aviation department has collaborated with a New Delhi-based aviation company for the service. Earlier, the government launched two phone numbers (8210594073 and 0651-4665515) for general enquiries about the service.
"The air ambulance service has generated a lot of interest in the state. So far, we have received over 250 queries. This will prove to be a milestone in the state healthcare services," Soren said.
The ambulance will connect Ranchi with New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Varanasi, Lucknow and Tirupati. Besides the state capital, the ambulance will pick up patients from airports and airstrips in Deoghar, Bokaro, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Giridih and Dumka, the government said.
A flight to New Delhi and Lucknow from Ranchi would cost 5 lakh while those to Mumbai and Hyderabad will cost 7 lakh. Patients will have to shell out 8 lakh for a trip to Tirupati and 3 lakh to Kolkata. Patients who will avail the service from other cities of the state apart from Ranchi will have to shell out ₹1.1 lakh extra for each additional hour.
Stating the charges are competitive, Soren said the government is working out ways to ensure poor and middle-class patients who cannot afford the services are provided free travel if needed. His government is also working on a plan to commission helipads close to the accident-prone zones of the state and national highways across the state to evacuate people injured in road accidents quickly.