State-owned NHAI has set a 10-minute deadline
for ambulances deployed on national highways to reach any accident site within
a 10-km vicinity, to cut delays in emergency response. It said failure to meet
the timeline could attract a penalty of ₹10,000 per incident.
NHAI, in its policy guidelines, further said
that ambulances should bring accident victims to the nearest hospital within 1
hour from the time of ticket acceptance. Failure to meet the timeline will
attract a penalty of ₹10,000.
With an aim to strengthen the Incident
Management System through the use of the NHAI Care System, the state-owned
agency on Wednesday came out with new norms to effectively manage the dispatch
of on-road units, including ambulances, cranes and patrolling vehicles.
Under the new norms, NHAI said, “Based on the
location of the incident the ambulance should not take more than 10 minutes to
cover any accident within a 10-km vicinity.”
“For incident locations beyond 10 km, allowed time shall be proportionally
increased. The same shall be verified through GPS data/ IMS Care Dashboard,’it
added. There are around 3,000 ambulances and 1,000 patrolling vehicles and
cranes, covering around 50,000 km of highways under the NHAI.
Under the new service-level benchmarks, any
emergency ticket rejection by ambulance will attract a penalty of ₹10,000. All
equipment, medicines and staff should be provided as per the respective
contract agreements, failing which a penalty of ₹10,000 will be imposed, the
state-owned agency said.
The state-owned agency said in order to ensure
effective implementation of NHAI Care System, AIS-140 compliant GPS devices
have been installed on all on-road units, including ambulances, Cranes, and
patrolling vehicles, deployed on NHAI projects.
“Dedicated Android Mobile Device with loT Sim
has been provided to each of the on-road units,”NHAI said. The government has
rolled out the helpline number, 1033 across the National Highway network.
The delay in response time in case of accidents
has been noted by the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety, as well as in the
performance audit by CAG. “Therefore, all Project Directors and Regional
Officers are directed to ensure strict compliance of the guidelines being
issued via this circular as the same concerns the Public Health and Safety and
any laxity in this regard shall not be overlooked,” NHAI said.