Pokhara—Tourism entrepreneur duo Ganesh Bahadur Bhattarai and Tikaram Sapkota have started a free ambulance service for coronavirus infected patients in Pokhara. Before coming up with this social service, Bhattarai and Sapkota had the malfunctioning ambulance repaired. The ambulance belongs to Balhitkari Pariyojana Nepal’s (BPN).
Both the entrepreneurs are senior tourism entrepreneurs and the past chairman of Pokhara Tourism Council, an umbrella organization of tourism associations from Pokhara. Amidst a small gathering, Pokhara Metropolitan City ward 6 chairman Jagat Bahadur Pahari commenced the ambulance service by providing the ambulance key to driver Roshan Sapkota on Sunday.
Entrepreneur Bhattarai believes that the free ambulance service would be helpful to the Covid- 19 patients as the ambulance service in Nepal is still very expensive. According to entrepreneur Sapkota, the concept of free ambulance arose following the meeting with Pokhara Sub Metropolitan City Office and Western Regional Hospital Pokhara officials who had informed about the lack of ambulances in government hospitals in this difficult time of the pandemic.
Bhattarai, Sapkota and other entrepreneurs will bear the ambulance operating cost including the repairing charge, driver’s salary, and fuel bill. For these purposes, 0.7 million rupees have already been collected. Bhattarai alone donated Rs 156,000 and Sapkota provided Rs 75,000. Similarly, entrepreneurs Ram Chandra Bahadur Bhattarai, Naresh Bahadur Bhattarai and Gopi Bahadur Bhattarai donated Rs 51,000 each. BPN Chairman Govinda Raj Pahari expressed his happiness for being utilized his project ambulance (Tata Sumo).
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