IIT Bombay students, alumni run around-the-clock ambulance service for medical emergencies

The HelpNow initiative has aggregated over 700 vehicles that are deployed and reach within 15 to 20 minutes across Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Bengaluru.

Two students and an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay have begun an around-the-clock ambulance service for medical emergencies. Amid the ongoing surge in coronavirus cases and acute shortage of ambulances, the HelpNow initiative has aggregated over 700 vehicles that are deployed and reach within 15 to 20 minutes across Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Bengaluru.

The initiative has been started by Aditya Makkar, Shikar Agrawal, currently studying in final year at IIT Bombay and Venkatesh Amrutwar, an alumnus.

HelpNow started with 12 ambulances on the roads of Mumbai in 2019. Within a year, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country in 2020, its network expanded exponentially. Currently, there are more than 350 ambulances in Mumbai alone.

“When we started, we had no idea that we would be dealing with the biggest pandemic the world has ever seen. The average arrival time of an ambulance is 50 minutes in India. It is not just the pandemic which has highlighted the issue, the problem existed before the pandemic started,” said Agrawal. IIT-Bombay-COVID-19-ambulance-featured-imageHelpNow ambulances with staff Now, with the second wave of coronavirus, the HelpNow call centres receive hundreds of calls each day.

The founders said they have provided services at subsidized rates and even free for the needy to more than 30,000 patients. The service is open to people from other parts of the country looking for better healthcare in these four metro cities.

“A lot of the trips were provided free of cost when the patient is financially challenged, a government servant or police personnel. Just to pay our drivers, paramedics and all our other staff, we charge a nominal fee which starts from Rs 500 and goes up to Rs 50,000 if it is an interstate trip,” said Makkar. More than 18 hospitals have been roped in to provide the best medical care within a short span of time. The initiative has also garnered support from various celebrities leading to a boost in business. A dedicated helpline number - 88 99 88 99 52 has been started to access the service.

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