NHAI tightens ambulance norms for highway accidents, Rs 10,000 fine for missing 10-minute deadline

Ambulances deployed on national highways will face a Rs 10,000 penalty for failing to reach an incident site within 10 minutes or take a victim to a hospital within the critical “golden hour”, according to a report by The Times of India.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has tightened service-level agreements (SLAs) and key performance indicators (KPIs) for ambulances, cranes and patrolling vehicles used for incident management across the national highway network.

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The revised norms aim to improve response times and ensure that emergency vehicles reach accident sites quickly and provide timely assistance to victims.

The NHAI has around 3,000 ambulances and about 1,000 patrol vehicles and cranes covering nearly 50,000 km of national highways. These vehicles are equipped with GPS and dedicated mobile devices running the NHAI Care application, which sends crash-location information to response teams and records the action taken during emergencies.

Under the revised norms, an ambulance will attract a Rs 10,000 penalty if it fails to reach an incident site within 10 minutes. A similar penalty will apply if the vehicle fails to take the victim to a hospital within the “golden hour”.

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The NHAI has also set penalties for lapses in the use of technology. A fine of Rs 2,500 will be imposed if the NHAI Care app is unavailable in a vehicle for more than 1% of the time in a day. The same penalty will apply if the vehicle's GPS is not live.

Penalties for delayed ticket response

The government has rolled out helpline number 1033 across the national highway network to report problems and seek emergency assistance. In case of an emergency, callers can use the helpline to seek an ambulance.

A dedicated 24x7 team issues tickets for ambulances, cranes and patrol vehicles to ensure a quick response. Under the new norms, a vehicle operator will face a Rs 5,000 penalty for taking more than a minute to accept a ticket. Rejecting a ticket will attract a Rs 10,000 penalty.

The revised guidelines also require every ambulance to conduct a 5-km dry run every day.

Officials said the focus of the new norms is to ensure that emergency vehicles can swiftly reach anyone in need.

NH stretches under the NHAI accounted for 49,675 deaths in 2024, around one-fourth of the nearly 1.77 lakh road fatalities recorded across the country. Officials have stressed that quick medical care can save 50% of lives.

(With inputs from TOI)