In a unique first of its kind corporate partnership, Ashok Leyland, flagship of the Hinduja Group, the second largest commercial vehicle manufacturer in India, has associated with Apollo Tyres to provide healthcare facilities to the trucking community in Namakkal, a prominent transhipment hub in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Co-operation with Ashok Leyland
The Healthcare Centre at Ashok Leyland’s Driver Training Institute at Namakkal, will be run by Apollo Tyres, and was inaugurated recently by Anuj Kathuria, Chief Operating Officer, and Balachandar NV, President, HR, Communication and CSR, Ashok Leyland; along with Satish Sharma, President, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Sunam Sarkar, President and Chief Business Officer, Apollo Tyres.
Serving a daily floating population of more than 12,500 truckers, and the allied community, the primary aim of the Healthcare Centre will 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 healthcare services for Vision Care, Diabetes, Hypertension and Tuberculosis. The two companies will be working together to establish more such healthcare centres in large transshipment hubs across India.
The new facility has been created with a spacious floor space of 2500 sq ft and 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 Tyres Healthcare Centres across India.
