The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) plans to bring in emergency services to handle accidents in every district. The MSRTC, which is the only option to travel within rural Maharashtra faces a lot of issues as immediate medical services are not available to passengers.
“Currently, the MSRTC has sent a proposal to the transport ministry in which it is mentioned that every district will get emergency medical services with an ambulance,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
The proposal was made by the MSRTC last month. “There have been no other services aligned to the MSRTC; we do not have anything like allied medical services similar to railways, which traditionally has a hospital near big junctions,” said the officer.
The MSRTC is also set to launch 500 air-conditioned buses which will ply between the small towns in Vidarbha and Marathwada. “This time we are making a conscious effort to run them in semi-rural-urban areas of Vidarbha and Marathwada,” said the official.
The MSRTC has been facing losses to the tune of Rs 1,934 crore up to March of 2015 and is able to recover only Rs 25 per km against an expense of Rs 36.
Officials said that ambulances will mostly be outsourced to a company on contract basis and will be renewed every year based on the performance.
