Vijayawada: In a step towards enhancing emergency medical services in Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy inaugurated 146 new ambulances on Monday at the Camp Office. These ambulances will add to the existing 108 ambulance services across the state.

The state government has invested ₹34.79 crore on these new ambulances. This includes the cost of equipment, to procure these 146 new ambulances. The acquisition was necessitated by the need to replace the older ambulances, which had covered over 2,50,000 kilometres and required frequent repairs.

The government had allocated the new ambulances to Anakapalli (4), Anantapur (5), Annamayya (8), Bapatla (4), Chittoor (8), East Godavari (1), Eluru (4), Guntur (1), Kakinada (3), Konaseema (2), Krishna (3), Kurnool (7), Nandyala (13), Nellore (14), NTR (6), Palnadu (7), Parvathipuram Manyam (2), Prakasam (14), Sri Sathya Sai (7), Srikakulam (4), Tirupati (7), Visakhapatnam (2), Vizianagaram (11), West Godavari (2), and YSR (7) districts respectively.

As per the finance department, a capital expenditure of ₹135.05 crores has been allocated for the maintenance of the existing 108 ambulances, with an additional operating expenditure of ₹188.56 crores per annum. The emergency response system comprises a dedicated team of 3,745 field personnel and 311 individuals serving at the Emergency Response Center.