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On Blinkit's 10-minute ambulance service, govt's ‘law of land’ condition
After daily essentials and other things, Blinkit announced it was adding one more service - ambulances at patient's doorstep in about 10 minutes.
Union minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said quick commerce giant Blinkit will have to ensure it meets legal requirements for its recently started 10-minute ambulance service and that the company adheres to “the law of the land”.
After daily essentials and other things, Blinkit on Thursday announced it was adding one more service - ambulances at patient's doorstep in about 10 minutes.
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"As regards Blinkit with ambulance service or medicines being delivered, my only submission would be that they have to make sure that they meet the law of the land, and whatever other legal requirements should be properly taken care of. No laws of the land should be broken," news agency PTI quoted Piyush Goyal said.
Piyush Goyal was addressing a press briefing.
Blinkit's ambulance service plan
In a post on microblogging platform X, Blinkit said it started the service with five ambulances hitting the road in Haryana's Gurugram on Thursday. Founder and CEO of Blinkit, Albinder Dhindsa, said yesterday they aim to solve the problem of providing quick and reliable ambulance service in Indian cities.
Dhindsa said Blinkit 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 would have a paramedic, an assistant and a trained driver to make sure they are able to deliver quality service.
"Profit is not a goal here," the startup founder had said. "We will operate this service at an affordable cost for customers and invest in really solving this critical problem for the long term."
Blinkit aims to expand to all major cities over the next two years.
As Blinkit launched this ambulance service, Dhindsa appealed to people to make way for an ambulance always.
Quick commerce bloomed in India and across the world during the Covid-19 pandemic when curbs were imposed on non-essential movement of people to check the spread of the virus.
