Covid-19: KSRTC launches ICU on wheels, oxygen bus

The KSRTC on Wednesday launched 'Sarige Suraksha ICU on Wheels' and added another 'Oxygen on Wheels' to the fleet of 12 such buses being operated by the four transport corporations to help Covid-19 patients in need.

Deputy Chief Minister and Transport Minister Laxman S Savadi launched both the buses in front of the KSRTC Central Office. The bus will be essentially a five-bed ambulance equipped with a ventilator, oxygen system for each bed, Patient Monitor (BP, Oxygen Amount, ECG, Temperature) system, emergency medicine system along with a generator to power the equipment. Two of them are equipped with ambulance-type medical equipment.

Built in-house by the KSRTC at an estimated cost of Rs 10 lakhs, the ICU on wheels is the second such effort by the corporation to pitch in during the emergency. In 2018, officials had converted an old bus into a similar facility to help the flood victims in Kerala.

More than 12 oxygen supply buses are already being operated by the four state road transport corporations. These buses are from Chitradurga, Chikkaballapur, Chikmagalore, Kalaburgi and Belagavi.

Savadi said the RTCs have already been instructed to provide oxygen buses in all the districts under public private partnerships in the backdrop of increasing Covid-19 cases.
A Hyderabad-based volunteer has come forward to provide medical equipment to a large number of oxygen buses.

Transport Corporations are ready to provide any assistance to control Covid-19. But there is a need for experienced semi-medical personnel to operate the oxygen or ambulance system in these buses. Transport corporations are ready to join hands with anyone.

Minister of Cooperation S T Somashekhar, KSRTC Chairman M Chandrappa, Managing Director Shivayogi C Kalasad and others were present.