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To provide immediate medical care to road accident victims, the government has launched pilot projects on three highway stretches that provide the victim cashless treatment for up to Rs 30,000, government said on Monday.
"In order to give a boost to emergency care of accident victims, pilot projects has been launched by the Ministry on Gurgaon-Jaipur section of NH 8, Mumbai-Vadodara of NH 8 and Ranchi-Rargaon-Mahulia of NH 33 for providing cashless treatment to road accident victims for 48 hours at expenditure up to a limit of Rs 30,000," Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways P Radhakrishnan told Rajya Sabha.
He said GPS enabled ambulances, connected with a central control room through a toll-free number 1033, are stationed at distance of 20 km to transport the injured to the hospitals for treatment within the 'Golden Hour'.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, under the scheme "National Highways Accident Relief Service Scheme" provides 10-tonne cranes and small medium cranes for hilly areas and ambulances to States/UTs for relief and rescue measures in the aftermath of accidents by way of evacuating road accident victim to nearest medical aid centre and for clearing the accident site.
Their deployment is done by the respective State Governments/ UTs on National Highways on accident prone stretches, having an average distance of 50 km.
"Ambulances, Route Patrol Vehicles and Tow Away Cranes are also provided at an average length of 50 kilometer on NHs entrusted to NHAI," he said.