The Maharashtra government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday told the Bombay High Court it was considering requisitioning privately-operated ambulances in the state during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, appearing for the State, and BMC counsel Anil Sakhare told the court the authorities are exploring other options to ensure privately-operated ambulances start plying on the roads.
The high court was further told that the Regional Transport Office (RTO) will be directed to publish on its website the contact numbers of private ambulances operating in a particular area so that public can have easy access to them.
The assurance was given to a Division Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Amjad Sayed which was hearing a petition filed by Kirit Somaiya, former Member of Parliament, raising concerns over shortage of ambulances in the city.
The court has posted the plea for further hearing on June 9 after the government sought more time.
As per the petition, the city had 3,000 ambulances, including private ones, until March 20, which reduced to 100 after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
Mr. Somaiya’s advocates Gaurav Mehta and Shivani Agarwal said the number of COVID-19 cases in the city was steadily increasing and in such a situation, there was a dearth of ambulances.
‘Shocking dip in numbers’
“The government runs ‘108’ ambulance service which has 93 ambulances in Mumbai. There are approximately 3,000 ambulances run by private operators. It is shocking to note there has been a significant decrease in the number of private ambulances during the pandemic,” the petition said.
Mr. Somaiya alleged that the State government and the BMC were blatantly ignoring the issue and had not made any effort to increase the number of ambulances.
“The intent of setting up isolation wards, quarantine centres, high functioning hospitals and efforts of so many medical and health care workers shall be in vain if people who are in need of these services fail to get them in time,” the petition stated. Mr. Somaiya sought a direction to concerned authorities to immediately take steps to increase the number of ambulances in the city.
The State government, in a public-private arrangement, has nearly 1,000 ambulances, with 93 of them in Mumbai. Of these, 60 are deployed for COVID-19 patients. The hotline number for these ambulances is 108.
