Zomato to Train Paramedics In-House as Blinkit Expands 10-Minute Ambulance Service

Zomato's emergency response service, launched via Blinkit, aims to deliver aid within 10 minutes. Starting with five ambulances, the program has expanded to cover half of Gurugram with 12 ambulances, responding to 594 calls, half being critical.

What started as an experiment with five ambulances is quickly turning into one of Zomato's most ambitious missions yet: saving lives in under 10 minutes. And now, the company is taking a crucial next step—training paramedics in-house to power its emergency response service.

Zomato co-founder Deepinder Goyal shared the update on Thursday via X (formerly Twitter), calling it "one of the hardest and most resource-intensive challenges we have ever taken up." Yet, he made it clear: “We are not backing down.”

Since its launch in January through Blinkit, Zomato’s quick-commerce arm, the service has grown from covering just Golf Course Road to nearly half of Gurugram. With 12 ambulances operating across six depots, Goyal says the team has already responded to 594 calls, half of them critical emergencies.

“Our ambulances now reach patients within 10 minutes—83% of the time,” he said, stressing that the goal is to make people trust that help is just minutes away when it matters most.

As the service scales, the company is now building an in-house paramedic training programme—a move that signals Zomato’s long-term commitment to transforming emergency care in India. “We’re learning. We’re committed. And we won’t stop,” Goyal wrote.

Each ambulance is stocked with critical life-saving equipment—oxygen cylinders, stretchers, AEDs, suction machines, and emergency medicines—and is staffed by a paramedic, an assistant, and a trained driver. The service charges a flat Rs2,000 per call.

At launch, Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa had set the tone: “Profit is not a goal here. We will operate this service at an affordable cost and invest in solving this critical problem for the long term.” He had also outlined a two-year roadmap to take the service to all major Indian cities.

However, it hasn’t all been smooth. Just a day after its launch, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal had publicly reminded the company to ensure full compliance with India’s healthcare and emergency service regulations.