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.

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 location of incident the ambulance should not take more than 10 minutes (from time of the ticket acceptance) for covering any accident within 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 Rs 10,000. All equipment, medicines and staff should be provided as per the respective contract agreements, failing which a penalty of Rs 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 (Mobile Data Terminal-MDT) 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 (NH) 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 (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," NHAI said.

Published on August 13, 2026