With the number of Covid-19 cases rising every day, Tamil Nadu authorities have already converted hundreds of taxis into ambulances for patients. However, the services are still not good enough in the rural areas. When a private ambulance service charged a massive amount of money for providing its services, a politician decided to donate his Kia Seltos to be used as an ambulance.
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K Mahendran, a prominent Congress leader from Tamil Nadu, has converted his Kia Seltos into an ambulance. The vehicle is already in use by the authorities to provide free services to patients in rural areas. Mahendran said that he had planned to buy a proper ambulance to be used for emergencies. However, as that was taking longer than desired to be delivered, he decided to convert his personal Seltos into an ambulance at a cost of Rs 5 lakh. The ambulance is well equipped, with an oxygen cylinder fitted into the vehicle to provide oxygen to patients during transit if needed. The unavailability of ambulances in Tamil Nadu’s rural areas and remote places like Pattukottai spurred Mahendran to convert his vehicle to an ambulance.
Mahendran belongs to Tharmarankottai village, which is around 10 km away from Pattukottai. He said that a 60-year old woman in the village developed severe non-COVID-19 related complications on Sunday. The family couldn’t arrange an ambulance or a vehicle as no one was willing to travel so far. Mahendran also stated that in Jimper, Puducherry, a family from the village had to spend more than Rs 15,000 to take a Covid-19 patient to the hospital a few days ago.
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Coming to the vehicle, prices for the Kia Seltos range from Rs 9.95 lakh for the base HTE G trim and goes up to Rs 17.65 for the loaded GTX+. It is available with 3 engine choices, two petrol and one diesel. The petrol 1.5-litre 4 cylinder produces 115 PS and 144 Nm of peak power and torque figures and can be paired with a manual or IVT transmission while the 1.4-litre turbo-petrol makes 140 PS and 242 Nm max power and torque which comes mated with a manual or a 7-speed DCT. The 1.5-litre turbo-diesel churns out power and torque figures 115 PS and250 Nm respectively and you have the option of either a manual or an auto transmission.
