When a five-storey paying guest accommodation collapsed in Delhi’s Satya Niketan on Sunday, ambulances operated by quick-commerce company Blinkit were among the early emergency responders to reach the site.Students and Blinkit personnel said an ambulance was summoned through the company’s app soon after the collapse, with several more subsequently joining the rescue operation alongside Delhi Police, fire services, CATS ambulances and disaster response teams.#WATCH | Delhi | Satya Niketan building collapse | A person has been rescued alive from the debris and is being sent to the hospital via an ambulance.Rescue operations underway. Further details awaited. pic.twitter.com/fmM7gMeS3T— ANI (@ANI) September 6, 2026The episode has put the spotlight on the availability, distribution and capability of ambulances in India, a key persistent problem with emergency medical care in the country. While it has considerably expanded its public ambulance network over the past two decades, the Centre’s own assessments have found shortages in parts of the country, wide variations in response times, inadequate availability of advanced life-support ambulances and vehicles that are old or non-functional.The problem is not only limited to the number of ambulances available. A recent assessment of state submissions before the Supreme Court showed large gaps in how emergency vehicles are tracked and dispatched, particularly for road-related health incidents. Of 34 states and Union Territories examined, 13 either did not have GPS installed in ambulances or had it only in a limited number of government vehicles. The gaps are particularly significant for trauma care, where response time can determine survival.The Blinkit ambulance Blinkit Ambulance (Blinkit Ambulance website)Media reports said that some ambulances operated by Blinkit reached the Satya Niketan site, where a building collapse has so far claimed seven lives. The quick commerce company’s ambulance service is currently available across Gurugram and select parts of Delhi NCR.According to the company, it has a fleet of 63 ambulances, with a claimed average response time of nine minutes. Its ambulances are equipped with facilities such as stretcher, scoop and wheelchairs, instruments to check vitals, essential medications, oxygen cylinder, and an automated external defibrillator. Those availing the ambulance can currently choose any hospital within 30 kilometres from their pickup point, with the app also suggesting a list of hospitals prioritised by proximity to the patient’s location.Blinkit says that the ambulance will wait at the hospital until the patient is transferred, and if the hospital cannot accept the patient, one can select another hospital through the app. The ambulance will continue assisting the patient until they are in the care of a hospital. The service is currently free.Eternal, Blinkit’s parent company, did not respond to a request for comment.Story continues below this adUnder the National Health Mission (NHM), the Centre supports the National Ambulance Service, largely accessed through the 108 and 102 helplines. The 108 service is primarily meant for emergencies such as trauma and accidents, while 102 is focused on patient transport, particularly for pregnant women and children.Also in Explained | Delhi building collapse: Why DU hostels accommodate few, and the price others payAs of June 2025, 28,321 ambulances and patient-transport vehicles were operating under the National Health Mission across 36 states and Union Territories, according to the latest Common Review Mission. These included 3,129 Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances, 15,251 Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulances and 3,926 patient transport vehicles, apart from boat, bike and other ambulances. The NHM provides support to states based on a norm of one ALS ambulance for every five lakh people and one BLS ambulance for every one lakh people. It is worth noting that as of June 2024, there were 28,830 ambulances and emergency transport vehicles, so the fleet size actually decreased. These are separate from privately-operated ambulance services in the country.BLS ambulances are designed to provide basic emergency care and patient stabilisation, while ALS vehicles carry more advanced equipment and are intended for critically ill patients requiring a higher level of pre-hospital care.The Centre’s 17th Common Review Mission found that the distribution of these ambulances remained uneven, with BLS vehicles generally more widely available than ALS ambulances. It also flagged ageing fleets, delayed replacement and non-functional or poorly maintained vehicles in several states.Story continues below this adShortages were not limited to vehicles, as the review found a recurring shortage of trained Emergency Medical Technicians, with drivers in some areas transporting patients without adequate clinical support. GPS-based tracking and centralised monitoring were also inconsistent across states.The review also found that inadequate availability could push patients towards private transport. In hard-to-reach tribal areas of Maharashtra’s Nandurbar district, for instance, government ambulances were at times inaccessible because of the terrain and travel time, forcing local health officials to arrange money for ASHA workers to hire private vehicles to move patients. The Centre has recommended more equitable deployment of ALS and BLS ambulances, replacement of ageing vehicles, trained EMTs in every operational ambulance and universal GPS-based real-time fleet tracking.There are signs of a similar gap in the wider ambulance market. A report by consultancy Primus Partners estimated that India’s ambulance services market was worth $1.50 billion in 2022, and projected it to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.12 per cent between 2024 and 2028. But it also pointed to a decline in new ambulance registrations after the Covid-19 pandemic.Also Read | After 7 die in Satya Niketan collapse, PIL seeks hostel policy for DelhiCiting Vahan data, Primus said registrations rose sharply from 7,814 in 2020 to 14,236 in 2021, when the second Covid-19 wave drove an expansion in emergency healthcare capacity. They subsequently fell to 12,737 in 2022 and 11,950 in 2023. The average over the four-year period was 11,648 registrations annually.Story continues below this adThe report also argued that the gap was not simply about the number of vehicles. Many ambulances in India continue to function primarily as patient-transport vehicles rather than units capable of providing critical emergency care, making the availability of ALS ambulances, trained emergency medical technicians and functional equipment equally important.