One of the largest ride hailing applications in the country – Ola – has just launched a new service called ‘Ola Emergency’, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Government of Karnataka, for the city of Bengaluru. This service essentially allows customers to book rides via the Ola application (app) for any essential medical appointments to a select number of hospitals.

The procedure to use the ‘Ola Emergency’ service is not complex. All you need to is, go on the Ola app and select ‘Enabled for Hospitals’ category. Once this is done, the customer can choose from a number of listed hospitals in the city as their destination. At the moment, Ola has over 200 hospitals listed in Bengaluru.

All drivers and cars operating under this category are equipped with essential protective equipment like masks and sanitizers. Furthermore, Ola will ensure this service is used only for medical travel that is not COVID-19 related and does not require special equipment available in an ambulance, as this service is not a replacement for those vehicles.

This feature can be used for instances when a citizen needs to travel for scheduled check-ups, physical injuries, dialysis, chemotherapy, etc. It is worth noting that customers will be charged a nominal fare in order to compensate drivers for their services.

For now, this service is only available in Bengaluru, though this feature is slated to launch in other major cities across India very soon.