HAL wants stake holders take up heli air ambulance

Bangalore, Sept 23: Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Chairman Ashok Baweja today called for a pilot project to provide heli-borne emergency medical services to people in times of accidents in the city, which is fast growing.

In his concluding remarks at a National Seminar on "Emergency Medical Services and Air Ambulance here today Mr Baweja said that there should be a working model to provide medical evacuation and rescue operations by air to the people hit by road accidents without losing any time.

"Such a working model could be used by any city as they were a big success in USA, Europe and Japan," he said.

He said that HAL was prepared to provide a fleet of air ambulances on different helicopter platforms- Chetan, Chetak and Druv for the operation as a social obligation but at the end they should be availed by stake holders.

Medical tourism was an emerging industry which could use helicoptors for providing emergency services he said adding that they could update their services just by providing a space for helipad on the roof-top for the landing of the helicoptors.

HAL with nine different locations in the country was ready to operate the helicoptors and the National Disaster Management Authority could use them for its capacity building he added.

UNI