Help cabins on highways planned

The company claimed that 20 cabins are already functioning on Mumbai-Goa, Mumbai-Nashik, Mumbai-Pune and Mumbai-Ahmedabad highways. Each cabin has at its disposal an ambulance, a towing van and a motorcycle. They also have two telephones with STD and ISD facilities.

According to Javed Akhtar, director, HUCIL, these facilities will reduce the fatalities in the respective areas by 10 per cent. “Our foremost aim in launching these emergency centres is to create road safety in accident-prone areas,” he added. Studies done by the company predicted that this would result in a saving of nearly Rs 100 crore a year.

Patrol jeeps do the rounds on the highways intercepting each other every 50 kilometres, looking out for people in search of help. In case of an accident, they immediately call for an ambulance from the nearest emergency centre and intimate the nearest government hospital about the case so that there are no hassles in admitting an emergency case. The company claims that the 15 ambulances which are operating at present attend to an average of 12 cases a week.

"With the government deciding that emergency facilities should not be denied to a victim at any cost, there won’t be any problem regarding the availability of treatment," said Surindra M Khandar, one of the directors of the company.

Being a commercial venture, the service comes at a price. An ambulance service will cost the victim Rs 9 per kilometre, towing Rs 11 per kilometre while use of cranes will be a minimum of Rs 3000.