Over the last few months as quick commerce had expanded their portfolios from grocery to a host of other items, many on social media had said that while it was easier than ever to get chips and shoes in 10 minutes, critical services like ambulances took a lot longer. But Blinkit appears to have looked to take matters into its own hands.
Blinkit has begun letting users book ambulances in 10 minutes. The company has started off with a fleet of 5 ambulances in Gurugram, and users will be able to book the ambulance through their apps. Blinkit says it’ll scale its service to all major cities in India over the next two years.
“We are taking our first step towards solving the problem of providing quick and reliable ambulance service in our cities,” Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa wrote on X. “The first five ambulances will be on the road in Gurugram starting today. As we expand the service to more areas, you will start seeing an option to book a Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulance through the Blinkit app,” he added.
“Our ambulances are equipped with essential life-saving equipment, including oxygen cylinders, AED (Automated External Defibrillator), stretcher, monitor, suction machine, and essential emergency medicines and injections. Each ambulance has a paramedic, an assistant and a trained driver to make sure we are able to deliver the highest quality of service in time of need,” he said.
Dhindsa didn’t reveal what rates it would charge for its ambulance service, but said they would be affordable. “Profit is not a goal here. We will operate this service at an affordable cost for customers and invest in really solving this critical problem for the long term.,” he added.
“We are carefully scaling this service up, as it is both important and new to us. Our aim is to expand to all major cities over the next two years. Let’s do our bit and make way for an ambulance always. You never know when you may save a life,” he said.
It’s a pretty interesting initiative. Blinkit already allows users to buy electronics, sports equipment and clothing from its app in 10 minutes, but appears to have taken a step up by delivering ambulances. Ambulances could be a natural fit for the company — users these days turn to Blinkit when they want something quickly, and they could well start opening the app in the event they require an ambulance. Blinkit can also control the supply of ambulances, either by having its own fleet or partnering with other operators, and can know their position in real time. At that point, it’ll just be a matter of matching users who need an ambulance with one that is nearby.
It remains to be seen how this initiative will play out, but Blinkit’s effort to provide quick ambulances is yet another example of the private sector stepping in to do something the government should be ideally doing. In India, items like generators and inverters sell well because of regular power cuts, and people in cities have high degrees of vehicle ownership because public transport isn’t always reliable. Blinkit’s move to provide ambulances is yet another example of the trend, and while it speaks highly of private sector entrepreneurship in the country, it also shines a light on how Indian governments over the years have largely failed to provide basic services reliably to their tax-paying citizens.