GUWAHATI: In a welcome gesture, the Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) on Wednesday donated an air-conditioned Bharat Benz bus for transporting cancer patients from Assam Bhawan Mumbai to the Tata Memorial Hospital and other cancer treatment centres in the Maharashtra capital.
The gesture comes in the wake of the announcement made by Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal during the flagging-off programme of 20 Bharat Benz buses here last month.
Given the increasing number of cancer patients from the state visiting Mumbai for advanced oncological treatment, Sonowal had asked the state transport corporation to start a bus service in Mumbai for facilitating their conveyance from Assam Bhawan to hospitals and treatment centres.
ASTC chairman Ashok Kumar Bhattarai inaugurated the bus service on Wednesday in the presence of the members of Assam Association, led by its president Jyotirmoy Das, and cancer patients undergoing treatment along with the officers and staff of Assam Bhawan Mumbai.
The service will be free of cost and maintained and sponsored by Deepsikha Foundation, a non-profit voluntary organisation devoted to serving cancer patients of the Northeast.