Romania’s General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU) has opened a bid to purchase 4,330 ambulances under a contract estimated at EUR 296 million without VAT, Profit.ro reported.

The contract has a four-year period. The offers in the bid will be open in the first part of January 2018.

This July, the Government announced a large investment effort for the country’s emergency services. The Government said it would endow the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU) with EUR 600 million worth of equipment.

The announcement came after several incidents throughout the year highlighted the need for emergency response equipment. In June, three soldiers lost their lives and seven others were injured after a truck they were in plunged into a ravine. The rescue operation was made difficult by the fact that the rescuers didn’t have the necessary equipment, including a helicopter that could fly at night and cranes.

Raed Arafat, a state secretary with the Interior Affairs Minister, said the upgrade program for the IGSU is meant to solve “chronic” problems the system has been confronted with, among them the IGSU’s decades-old car fleet for extinguishing fires.

Romanian Emergency Inspectorate buys protection equipment for firefighters with EUR 20.5 mln

editor@romania-insider.com