On 16th December 2019 we partnered with Apollo Tyres to provide healthcare facility to the trucking community in Namakkal, a prominent transhipment hub in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The Healthcare Centre at Ashok Leyland’s Driver Training Institute at Namakkal, will be run by Apollo Tyres, and was inaugurated today by Mr. Gopal Mahadevan, Director and CFO; Mr. Anuj Kathuria, Chief Operating Officer; and Mr. Balachandar NV, President – HR, Communication and CSR, Ashok Leyland along with Mr. Satish Sharma, President, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa; and Mr. Sunam Sarkar, President and Chief Business Officer, Apollo Tyres.

Servicing a daily floating population of more than 12,500 truckers, and the allied community, the primary aim of the Healthcare Centre would be awareness generation on HIV-AIDS and prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among truckers, and the local community. The centre will be staffed by a qualified doctor, a counsellor, and paramedics, apart from outreach workers and a network of peer educators appointed over a period of time. This team will work together towards bringing down the instance of STIs, and thereby, reducing the vulnerability of the population of contracting HIV, apart from offering a gamut of other health care service for vision care, diabetes, hypertension, and Tuberculosis. The two companies will be working together to establish more such healthcare centres in large transshipment hubs.

The new facility, Healthcare Centre, has been created with a spacious floor space of 2500 sq ft. The centre is equipped with adequate diagnostic equipment, which is exclusive for the health education of the Driving community within the Driver Training premises. A nominal registration fees of INR 20/- will enable the driver to avail these services at any of the 31 Apollo centres across India. The idea behind this initiative is not just to provide medical benefits, but also to educate the drivers for a better life beyond driving.