A person died at Pune’s Gultekdi Market Yard after an ambulance was reportedly not available in time during a medical emergency, exposing a critical gap in emergency healthcare at one of the city’s busiest wholesale markets.
According to a report by Pudhari, the incident occurred on Monday, October 19, near the Sharda Gajanan Temple in the market premises. The person was experiencing severe abdominal pain when doctors present at a health camp advised that the patient be taken to a hospital immediately. However, an ambulance was not available in time, and the person died at the location, the report said.
The incident has brought renewed attention to the medical arrangements maintained by the market committee. Gultekdi Market Yard handles substantial commercial activity and sees daily movement of farmers, traders, porters, workers, customers and transport vehicles. The report said that the absence of an immediately available ambulance has raised concerns about how medical emergencies and accidents are handled inside the premises.
Questions have also been raised about an ambulance that had earlier been donated by Kachi Pratishthan to Shri Sharda Gajanan Mandal. The vehicle was reportedly seen for a few days in the mandal’s premises but later was no longer visible. The report questioned where the ambulance had gone and whether it remained available for emergencies at the market.
The market committee receives income through various fees, but the incident has triggered demands for a dedicated and functioning emergency medical system for people working and visiting there. The affected groups include farmers bringing produce, traders conducting business, head-load workers, transport workers and customers moving through the market during busy hours.
Santosh Nangre, a workers’ leader and director, has demanded that the market committee purchase a new ambulance immediately. In a representation, he said that the lack of emergency medical facilities creates difficulties in providing timely treatment to people injured in accidents. He sought an ambulance for the safety of farmers, traders, porters and workers in the market yard.
The reported death also raises an operational question for large urban markets: whether emergency medical response should depend on informal arrangements or a clearly assigned, continuously accessible system. The source report does not provide details of the market committee’s existing emergency protocol, the ambulance’s current status, or whether any official inquiry has been ordered.
Nangre’s demand is for the market committee to arrange a new ambulance at the earliest, while the availability and deployment of emergency medical services at Gultekdi Market Yard remain the immediate issues raised by the incident.
