Between Jan 2016 and Dec 2017, over 200 people died on the expressway, but the trauma care centre that was ready in 2014 has not been pushed into service.
Mumbai: In 2012, the Maharashtra government started actively working on a project to build a trauma care centre and an air ambulance facility on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, an arterial highway connecting the two major cities, notorious for a high number of road accidents.
However, six years later, accident victims on the showpiece expressway still do not get medical aid within the golden hour.
Although the construction of the trauma care centre was complete in 2014, it has been lying vacant for the past four years as the government has been unable to find an operator to run it. The planned air ambulance too is far from taking off.
With this centre – located at Ozarde, near the Pune end – lying unused, plans to have a second such facility near the Mumbai end — between Bhatan and Khalapur villages – have also been shelved.
The nub of the problem
The 94-km Mumbai-Pune expressway, completed in 2002, drastically cut down travel time between the two cities. But it has seen a very high number of accidents and fatalities, largely due to speeding and lane-cutting. Between January 2016 and December 2017, over 200 people died on the expressway in 641 accidents, according to data from the state highway police.
In the absence of any medical facility along the length of the expressway, accident victims are either rushed to Panvel at the Mumbai end, or Nigdi at the Pune end.
Although the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), the state government agency in charge of the construction of the centre, had identified the need for it back in 2005, it actively started working on it only in 2012, giving the contract to build it to a Pune-based company in exchange for commercial exploitation of a piece of land along the expressway. The private company completed the construction in 2014, but the state government took it over from the company only in 2016.
Pune-based Tanmay Pendse, who lost his brother, Marathi actor Akshay Pendse, in an accident on the expressway in 2012, said: “I met CM Devendra Fadnavis in 2016, requesting him to start operations at the trauma care centre at the earliest. He seemed positive, but nothing happened. It’s not a large investment, but the government does not seem serious about it.”
What’s needed to run the centre?
As per MSRDC officials, the operation and maintenance cost of the trauma care centre will work out to be about Rs 1-1.5 crore annually.
The trauma care centre constructed is of ‘Level 4’ grade, which can provide surgical and critical care services, and has minor operation theatres, recovery rooms, a general ward, waiting rooms, a pantry, attached toilets and bathrooms in each room, a pharmacy, and staff and doctors’ cabins.
The plan was to equip the trauma care centre to conduct initial evaluation, stabilise accident victims, provide diagnostic services, and have a base hospital close at hand for patients who need specialised care.
The MSRDC is currently looking for a minimum staff of 16 professionals to be posted at the trauma care centre, including one orthopaedic surgeon and an anaesthetist.
Charity the only hope
After a number of failed attempts at roping in an operator, the MSRDC is currently scouting for charitable institutions or hospitals to run the trauma care centre at a no-cost basis.
An MSRDC official, who did not wish to be named, said: “We were initially hoping that the state public health department would take over the onus of the operations. We have been in constant correspondence with the department. But, the public health department itself is facing a manpower crunch.
“There are a couple of charitable companies interested in running the trauma care centre and we hope to have an operator soon.”
He added the MSRDC is currently not looking for an operator for the air ambulance, as it is a very costly proposition, and not many companies find it viable without some financial assistance.