Bus service to Tirupati from Bengaluru airport
Bengaluru, Aug 27: The state-run public transport corporation on Monday launched a non-stop luxury bus service to connect the holy Hindu town Tirupathi in Andhra Pradesh and Bengaluru airport.
"The service will ferry domestic and international passengers to and from Tirupati to the airport in 5 hours both ways," Karnataka State Road Transport Corp (KSRTC) official R. Girish told IANS here.
The average distance between the destinations is about 280 km.
The 'Flybus' service will operate twice a day from the airport -- at 10 a.m. and 10 p.m., reaching Tirupathi at 3 p.m. and 3 a.m. The bus will leave Tirupathi at 11 a.m. and 9 p.m, and reach the airport at 4 p.m. and 2 a.m.
"As the world-famous Hindu god Venkateswara and his consort Padmavathi temple attract thousands of devotees from across the country and abroad, the service will facilitate them to reach Tirupati at the earliest and catch return or connecting flights from Bengaluru conveniently," said Girish.
The corporation operates similar services for air passengers to and from Mysuru, Madikeri, Mangaluru and Kundapura in Karnataka and Coimbatore and Salem in Tamil Nadu daily.
As the country's third largest airport, the Kempegowda airport had handled 80 lakh passengers in the first quarter (April-June) of this fiscal (2018-19) after registering 269 lakh passenger movements in fiscal 2017-18.
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'Low-quality' catheters supplied to West Bengal govt hospitals at high price, probe ordered
Kolkata (PTI): The West Bengal health department has launched a probe into the supplies of allegedly low-quality and locally made catheters at a high price to several government hospitals, posing a risk to the lives of patients undergoing treatment in these facilities, officials said.
Such central venous catheters (CVCs) were allegedly supplied to at least five medical colleges and hospitals in the state, defying allocation of international standard-compliant CVCs, they said.
The distribution company, which has been accused of supplying these catheters to government hospitals, admitted to the fault but placed the blame on its employees.
"We started checking stocks some time back and found these locally made CVCs in my hospital store. These catheters are of low quality as compared to those allocated by the state. We have informed the state health department," a senior official of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital told PTI.
Low-quality catheters were also found in the stores of other hospitals, which indicates "possible involvement of insiders in the scam", a health department official said.
The low-quality CVCs were supplied by a distributor in the Hatibagan area in the northern part of Kolkata for the last three to four months, he said.
"Such kinds of local CVCs are priced around Rs 1,500 but the distributor took Rs 4,177 for each device," the official said.
A CVC is a thin and flexible tube that is inserted into a vein to allow for the administration of fluids, blood, and other treatment. It's also clinically called a central line catheter.
"An initial probe revealed that the distribution company Prakash Surgical had supplied the low-quality and locally manufactured catheters to several government hospitals instead of the CVCs of the government-designated international company.
"All the units will be tested and a proper investigation is on to find out who benefited from these supplies," the health department official said.
The distribution company blamed its employees for the supply of inferior quality catheters.
"I was sick for a few months. Some employees of the organisation made this mistake. We are taking back all those units that have gone to the hospitals. It's all about misunderstanding," an official of the distribution company told PTI.
According to another state health department official, a complaint was lodged with the police in this connection.
Asked about how many patients were affected by the usage of such low-quality CVCs, the official said, "The probe would also try to find that out".
According to sources in the health department, some of the staff of the hospitals' equipment receiving departments and some local officials of international organisations might be involved in the alleged irregularities.
