A file photo of ‘108’ Arogya Kavacha ambulances in Bengaluru.
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Karnataka’s Health Department is all set to take over the ‘108’ Arogya Kavacha ambulance service — currently run on a PPP model — and operate it.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said the service would now be run completely by the department. “This will not only make the service more effective and benefit people but will also save crores of rupees to the State exchequer,” he said.

Pointing out that all ambulances running under the Arogya Kavacha service in Chamarajanagar are currently being operated by the department on a pilot basis, the Minister said that soon all Arogya Kavacha and other government ambulances across the State would be converted into a common fleet to run the free emergency response service.

The government had entered into an agreement with GVK-EMRI in 2008 for 10 years on a PPP model. Although the company’s agreement with the government ended, new tenders for the service are yet to be finalised due to poor response from service providers. As a result, the current service provider has been asked to continue till further orders.

“By taking over the service from the private partner, we will be doing away with the PPP model. Following several complaints and problems plaguing the system, we consulted several experts and held mature deliberations on taking over the service and running it on our own. The Chamarajanagar pilot has proved successful and we will soon extend it across the State,” he said.

Stating that the government owns all the ambulances and pays the private company to run the service, the Minister added, “The government is bearing all expenses — fuel and maintenance — for the ambulances and salaries of the drivers and other staff. The private agency is managing it through a command centre. If the Health Department runs it instead of the agency, it will result in savings of crores of rupees to the State exchequer. Besides, it will also improve the system.”

The Minister said that in the next one month, the department would take over all the government ambulances in the State under its management. “After this, within three months, we will take over the management of ‘108’ ambulances under our command control centre. Apart from a command centre in Bengaluru, we will set up command centres in each district for the seamless functioning of the service,” he said.