A floating ambulance in Srinagar's Dal Lake

Keeping in view the difficulty faced by houseboat dwellers and tourists alike, Tariq Ahmad Patloo, a social activist, has come up with the idea of "boat ambulance". The floating ambulance will be helpful in ferrying the sick from their dwellings on the lake to hospitals without going through any time-consuming process.

Srinagar: In a first, Dal Lake in Srinagar is all set to start a floating ambulance for its dwellers and tourists where people can get basic medical facilities.

The "boat ambulance" has come as a relief for thousands of people living in Dal Lake who used to face a lot of hardship whenever they faced any healthcare issues. A patient had to wait for a boat to come and only then he/she would be taken to a nearby hospital when needed and it was particularly difficult during night hours.

floating ambulance in Srinagar's Dal Lake

It was Tariq Ahmad Patloo, a social activist, who lives here and came up with the idea of a "boat ambulance" for the lake dwellers. Talking with ETV Bharat, Patloo said that they have been facing this issue for years but nobody had a solution for it. "It was during the Covid-19 pandemic that I thought of it. I was infected with Covid-19 and everybody here was scared to come near me. Even going to a hospital became an issue as boat owners were also fearful of ferrying Covid positive people. That is when I came up with this idea that we should have an ambulance here," he said.

"Arranging a boat when somebody falls sick is a time-consuming process and the patient suffers a lot during that," he informed.

Giving details about the ambulance, Patloo said, "It is not ready yet. A motor would be fixed to the boat in a few days. We are also in talks with some doctors for the ambulance. It will take a few days and then we will start the service."

A Delhi based NGO 'Satya Rekha' is helping Patloo with some funds for the ambulance service while he has invested some of his own money also in it. "I will take care of the ambulance myself, but we will need government's support for equipment and the daily service of doctors so that the patients living around Dal Lake get timely help," Patloo added.