- Ambulances must reach accident site within 10 minutes.
- Victims to be taken to hospital within one hour.
- Rs 10,000 penalty for non-compliance or delays.
The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has set a 10-minute deadline for an ambulance to reach the accident site on the national highways within a radius of 10 km. Under the new guidelines, the authority has also made it mandatory for an ambulance to take the victim to the nearest hospital within one hour of accepting a ticket.
To ensure compliance, the authority has set a penalty of Rs 10,000 for any failure. The new rules, issued on Wednesday, are aimed at reducing delays in emergency response and strengthening the Incident Management system through NHAI Care System.
The NHAI guidelines read, "Based on the location of the incident, the ambulance should not take more than 10 minutes (from the time of ticket acceptance) for covering any accident within a 10-km vicinity."
For distance beyond 10 km
For a distance beyond 10 km, the ambulance will get a proportionately increased time for response. The distance will be verified through the GPS data and IMS Care Dashboard.
Notably, the NHAI's Care System not only has ambulance facilities but also crane and patrolling vehicles. The new guidelines strive to augment response effectiveness across all services.
At present, there are around 3,000 ambulances and 1,000 patrolling vehicles on the national highways that cover around 50,000 km of highways under NHAI.
The new norms also penalise ambulances with Rs 10,000 for rejection of a ticket. A Rs 10,000 penalty is also set for not having equipment, medicines and staff according to the contract.
Tech use in Care System
The authority has said that it installed AIS-140 compliant GPS devices on all on-road units, including ambulances, cranes and patrolling vehicles deployed on NHAI projects. This will ensure effective implementation of the NHAI Care System.
"Dedicated Android Mobile Device (Mobile Data Terminal-MDT) with IoT SIM has been provided to each of the on-road units," it said.
Citing delayed response flagged by the Supreme Court and Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, the NHAI stated, "All Project Directors (PDs) and Regional Officers (ROs) are directed to ensure strict compliance of the guidelines being issued vide this circular as the same concerns the Public Health and Safety and any laxity in this regard shall not be overlooked".