The ambulance service to transport any seriously ill patient or accident victims to hospital within the first few minutes of any emergencies and planned to be in operation country-wide with India’s assistance has now begun.

India’s High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Y.K. Sinha said that his government would provide USD 7.5 million to Sri Lanka for the first phase of this project that would initially cover the Western and Southern Provinces.

This service is being established on a request by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his recent visit to Sri Lanka. This project is under the supervision of Deputy Minister for Policy Planning and Economic Affairs Dr. Harsha de Silva.

Dr. Harsha de Silva said that very soon a team of 600 Sri Lankans would be sent for training to GVK Emergency Response Institute in India and that this emergency service could be obtained in future by dialing telephone number 119.

This emergency ambulance service which is a non-profitable service would be implemented in four stages with the first being within the Western and Southern Provinces through 88 ambulances.

Below are Dr. Harsha de Silva’s views on this project when he spoke to adaderanabiz.lk recently: