Health and Family Welfare Minister K. Sudhakar on Thursday informed the Legislative Assembly that tenders would be called soon for providing emergency ambulance services under ‘108 Arogya Kavacha’ in different districts of the State.
The ‘108’ ambulance service was started in 2007-08 with GVK-EMRI company, which was providing quality services in the initial years. But later the service quality was not up to the mark and the previous Siddaramaiah-led government snapped ties with the company in 2017 and the company went to court challenging the government decision.
In a reply to Krishna Byre Gowda (Congress) during the question hour, Dr. Sudhakar said the department had decided to call fresh tenders soon to provide ambulance services. At present, the State has around 500 ambulances as against the requirement of 750. He also admitted that the department had not been able to provide quality services owing to a shortage of ambulances.
