Sancharam runs lift-equipped vehicles for people who can't climb into a normal car — but don't need an emergency stretcher either. Dialysis, chemotherapy, physiotherapy, check-ups, or a family wedding. Your wheelchair rolls straight in. You stay seated. You arrive with your dignity intact.
A dialysis session three times a week is not an emergency. Neither is a physiotherapy appointment, a post-surgical review, or your granddaughter's wedding. Yet for anyone who can't bend into a car seat, an ambulance has been the only vehicle that could carry them.
Cheap, everywhere, and completely unusable.
Built for emergencies you aren't having.
Seated, secured, supported — and unremarkable to the neighbours.
Kerala's regulated fare for a Category C ambulance (AC, with oxygen) is ₹1,500 minimum plus ₹40/km. That is the cheapest oxygen-equipped vehicle available today — and it still arrives with a stretcher.
Fifty-four seconds, six steps — from the phone call to the hospital door. This is exactly what happens when you book.
Animated walkthrough. Vehicle graphics are illustrations of the Sancharam fit-out specification, not photographs of a specific registered vehicle.
The difference comes down to a single question: can the passenger be helped onto a seat, or do they need to stay in their wheelchair? You don't have to decide — our dispatcher asks a few questions and assigns the right one.
For a passenger who can be helped onto a seat — a stand-and-pivot transfer — but can't fold themselves into a normal car door. The powered captain seat rotates fully out of the vehicle and lowers to near-ground height. They sit down where they are; the seat carries them in.
For a passenger who must stay in their own wheelchair the whole way, or who needs to travel lying flat. A hydraulic platform lift raises the chair through the rear door onto a lowered floor, where four-point tie-downs lock it to the frame. Nobody lifts anybody.
Cylinder, regulator and mask, checked before every departure.
Bracket-mounted and inspected, with a crew trained to use it.
Portable suction on the Tier 2 van for patients who need airway clearing.
Sealed, dated and restocked after every use.
Wheelchair bolted to floor rails — never just parked and hoped for.
Patient handling and basic life support certified, not just a driver.
Family — here or abroad — can follow the vehicle in real time.
Cabin, rails and platform wiped down after every patient.
Call, WhatsApp or fill the form. Can they stand and pivot? Do they use oxygen? Is the wheelchair powered? That's all we need.
You get the tier, the crew, the pickup window and the full fare in writing before anything is booked. No surge, no surprises.
The crew arrives early, deploys the lift or swivel seat at your doorstep, and secures the chair. Family never does the lifting.
Dialysis runs long. The vehicle waits at a published hourly rate, or returns at a set time — your choice, agreed upfront.
Kerala regulates ambulance fares, and we price against that benchmark deliberately — because a family should never have to choose the stretcher just because it was cheaper.
| What you pay | Tier 1 — Swivel-seat MUV | Tier 2 — Wheelchair van | Category C ambulance (state regulated) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base fare, first 10 km | ₹1,000 | ₹1,400 | ₹1,500 minimum |
| Each additional km | ₹30 | ₹38 | ₹40 |
| Waiting, per hour | ₹150 | ₹200 | ₹200 |
| Recurring plan — 12 return trips a month, up to 15 km Dialysis, chemotherapy, physiotherapy |
₹8,500 /month | ₹12,000 /month | — |
| Stretcher transfer required | Not available | Included | Included |
| Wheelchair stays with the passenger | Folded, travels along | Yes — locked in place | No |
You get the full fare — distance, waiting, return leg — as a number, in writing, before the vehicle is assigned.
Three dialysis sessions a week at the per-trip rate would run far higher. If the trip repeats, always ask for the monthly plan.
Book and pay online for a parent in Kerala, and follow the vehicle live. A large share of our early bookings come from adult children overseas.
Ambulance column shown for comparison, per the Kerala Health Department's uniform ambulance fare notification. Sancharam is not an ambulance service and does not carry emergency cases — for an emergency, call 108.
Kochi's tertiary hospitals pull patients in from Kottayam and Thrissur every day, and the drive between them is short enough to run as one connected operation. We work within these three districts and the corridors that link them.
The trip that repeats forever. Our recurring plan exists for exactly this.
Going in exhausted, coming out worse. A vehicle that waits and brings you home.
Weekly physiotherapy that only works if you actually get there.
Discharged, still can't bend, still has three follow-ups to attend.
Trips that matter more, handled by crew who understand that.
Not every journey is medical. Amma should be at the wedding.
No — and that's the entire point. Sancharam is a non-emergency patient transport service. We carry oxygen, a suction unit and an AED as a precaution, and our crew is trained to use them, but we do not respond to emergencies and we don't run with sirens. If someone is in a medical emergency, call 108 immediately. We are for the planned trip: the dialysis slot, the oncology appointment, the discharge home, the wedding.
Yes — that's the Tier 2 van. The hydraulic platform is rated well beyond the weight of a powered chair with an occupant, and the lowered floor gives the headroom a powered chair needs. Tell us the make and model when you book and we'll confirm the fit before the vehicle is assigned rather than discovering a problem at your gate.
Always, and at no extra charge. Tier 1 seats up to three additional passengers; Tier 2 seats two alongside the wheelchair position. We'd rather someone familiar is in the vehicle — it makes the whole trip easier for the patient and for our crew.
Dialysis runs long; so does everything else in a hospital. You choose upfront: the vehicle waits at the published hourly rate (₹150 for Tier 1, ₹200 for Tier 2), or it leaves and returns at a set time. If you booked waiting and the delay isn't your doing, we don't start the clock the moment we park — we start it at your scheduled finish time.
This is a large part of who we're built for. You book and pay online from wherever you are, we coordinate directly with your parent or their carer on the ground, and you get live trip tracking plus a message when they're safely home. You never have to rely on a relayed phone call to know whether the trip happened.
Tier 1 runs with a driver-cum-attendant trained in patient handling and basic life support. Tier 2 runs with two people — a driver plus a dedicated attendant who travels in the back with the passenger and is responsible for securement, the lift, and the oxygen. This is the part of the service we spend the most on, because it's the part that decides whether a trip goes well.
Because our founder's father reached Stage 5 chronic kidney disease and could no longer transfer into a car — and the only vehicle available in the district that could carry him was a full ambulance. Every routine outpatient visit became an expensive, clinical, faintly humiliating event, and the neighbours came to the gate every time. Nobody in Ernakulam, Kottayam or Thrissur was running the vehicle that should have existed. So we're running it.
Two minutes. We'll come back with the vehicle, the crew and the exact fare — before anything is confirmed.
For emergencies, call 108 — Sancharam does not carry emergency cases.
Demand in Ernakulam is currently ahead of the vehicles we have on the road, so you've been added to our booking queue rather than assigned a vehicle straight away.
A coordinator will call you on the number you gave to confirm the date, the vehicle and the exact fare. Please don't treat this as a confirmed booking until we've spoken — and if the trip is urgent or medical, call 108.
| Signal | Count | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Watched the walkthrough | — | — |
| Reached the fare table | — | — |
| Unique IPs that clicked "book" | — | — |
| Chose Tier 1 — swivel seat | — | — |
| Chose Tier 2 — wheelchair van | — | — |
| Ernakulam | — | — |
| Kottayam | — | — |
| Thrissur | — | — |
| Recurring need (2×/week or more) | — | — |
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