Jammu and Kashmir to get two air ambulances

JAMMU - Jammu and Kashmir will soon get two air ambulances to move seriously injured and critically ill people to speciality hospitals in New Delhi or Chandigarh, according to official sources.

The purchase has been sanctioned by the union health ministry, headed by Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Aware of the problems of transporting patients in this mountainous state, Azad had mooted this proposal when he was Jammu and Kashmir chief minister.

The state’s remote areas of Doda, Kishtwar, Rajouri and Poonch are notorious for bad roads. Even the 294-km Jammu-Srinagar highway is often closed by landslides or heavy snowfall. A number of people have died because they could not reach hospital on time.