The government of India has agreed to provide a financial grant to Sri Lanka for the procurement of 100 new ambulances for the 1990 Suwa Seriya Ambulance Service.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Sri Lanka to facilitate the receipt of the grant.
Established in 2016 with financial assistance from the Indian government, the 1990 Suwa Seriya ambulance service was expanded to cover the entire island in 2018.
Operating free of charge around the clock across all districts, the service currently handles between 1,000 and 1,200 patient transport requests daily.
The ambulance fleet covers approximately nine million kilometres annually. However, an increasing incidence of mechanical failures has been reported among the service’s existing fleet of 322 ambulances, according to a statement issued by the Department of Government Information.
In view of these operational challenges, the proposal to enter into an MoU with the Indian government to obtain 100 new ambulances equipped with comprehensive medical facilities was submitted by the Minister of Health and Mass Media and subsequently approved by the Cabinet of Ministers.