Colombo, Nov 10 (PTI) India will provide a grant to expand Sri Lanka's national emergency ambulance service, with the island's cabinet approving a proposal to sign an agreement with New Delhi, a minister said on Tuesday.
Sri Lanka's Cabinet spokesperson and Minister Nalinda Jayathissa said the cabinet had approved the proposal to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with India for the grant.
India's Health Minister J P Nadda, who arrived in Sri Lanka on Tuesday, will formalise the agreement on Wednesday, Jayathissa said.
The expansion will add 100 ambulances to the existing fleet of 322 vehicles operated by the country's free emergency ambulance service, known as 1990 Suwa Seriya.
The expansion follows a commitment made during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Sri Lanka in April 2025.
The service was launched in 2016 with Indian grant assistance of USD 7.5 million and has since expanded into a nationwide emergency response network.
The Indian Embassy in Sri Lanka said in a social media post in August that the service had completed 10 years of operations, supported by India's grant assistance of USD 22.5 million.
It described the service it as a reflection of the India-Sri Lanka partnership and New Delhi's "Neighbourhood First" policy.
The 1990 Suwa Seriya service was established following a request by the Sri Lankan government during Modi's visit to the island in March 2015.
It is estimated to respond to 1,000 to 1,200 patient-transfer calls daily, providing free emergency medical transport across the country.
Health Minister Nadda is in Sri Lanka to attend the first BIMSTEC Health Ministers' Meeting, scheduled to be held in Colombo on Wednesday.
BIMSTEC, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, is a regional grouping of seven countries -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
The first BIMSTEC Senior Officials Meeting on Health was held in Colombo on Tuesday, reviewing regional cooperation in public health, capacity-building, traditional medicine, cancer care and disease surveillance, according to India's Ministry of Ayush.
