Indian government approves purchase of another 25 cranes
20 October 2008
The Indian government has approved a sum of Rs.58,868,475 (US$1.2 million) for the purchase of 25 units of 10 tonne capacity mobile cranes. It was approved by the Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Thiru T.R. Baalu, under the National Highways Accident Relief Service Scheme.
The cranes will be made available to the transport departments and police departments of various states across the country. The Transport Department of the State of Tamil Nadu will get five while the directorate general of Police of Karnataka is being given three cranes. The States of Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghayala, Orissa, Punjab and West Bengal get two cranes each. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands also gets one.
The National Highways Accident Relief Service Scheme has been in operation since 2000. Under the scheme cranes and ambulances are provided to transport and police departments of the states and union territories and NGOs recommended by states or union territories, for evacuating accident victims to nearest hospitals and clearing accident sites.
At the time of writing, 252 cranes and 437 ambulances had been provided to different states and union territories.
