10 TMT buses are now ambulances

Five ambulances started ferrying patients from Sunday

The Thane Municipal Corporation had decided to convert 10 of its buses into ambulances. Five Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) buses have already been converted into ambulance.

Five Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) buses have been converted into ambulances. (HT Photo)

Recently, a pregnant woman and her five-year-old daughter had to wait for over 12 hours for an ambulance to take them to a Covid hospital in Thane. Several such complaints have come in from across the city as there are not enough ambulances as the number of patients are increasing. TMC has 21 ambulances, including 11 regular ones, six maternity ambulances and four cardiac ambulances.

Sandeep Malvi, deputy municipal commissioner of TMC, said, “Ten TMT buses will be converted into ambulances. Five are already in service from today. The rest will be ready by tomorrow. Each bus has two beds. The driver’s cabin has a partition. The ambulance will be operated in three shifts.”

Residents can call 022-25399828 to avail this service.

The TMC has appointed over 500 Covid warriors across the city to help it trace contacts and also keep an eye on residents who do not abide by social distancing norms. There are over 500 Covid volunteers keeping a watch in all the wards.

Malvi said, “Earlier, we had stationed volunteers only in wards which had more cases. Now, we have at least 10 volunteers in all wards. We will increase the number to 1,300 volunteers. The volunteers alert us immediately if they come to know of any person showing Covid symptoms.”