Gurugram, Aug. 27 -- Last month, an ambulance took 30 minutes to reach a society that was just 4-kilometres away from Marengo Asia Hospital on Golf Extension Road, twice the recommended response time. This was not a one-time incident. According to doctors and ambulance drivers in Gurugram, response vehicles take nearly double the time they should take to cover a certain distance, wasting crucial time in medical emergencies. "Distance is not an issue in Gurugram. It is the bad road conditions and traffic congestion," said Dr Salil Malik, the head of emergency medicine at the Sushant Lok II Hospital. The recommended ambulance response time in medical emergencies is 10 minutes in busy urban areas, under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's Operational Guidelines on National Ambulance Services, 2026. The broader target is to reach the nearest medical centre within 20 minutes. For highways such as NH-48, the National Highways Authority of India requires ambulances to reach accident sites within 10 minutes of ticket acceptance for incidents within a 10km radius. NHAI has also prescribed a Rs.10,000 penalty per missed benchmark, with an additional Rs.5,000 for each minute of delay in specific dispatch-related cases. Earlier this year, the National Highways Authority of India said ambulances on the roads it manages (such as NH-48) are required to reach accident locations within 10 minutes of ticket acceptance for incidents occurring within a 10km radius. "It is the last mile that becomes the most difficult for ambulances. It takes double the time it should take to cover a distance in Gurugram. It is a lot of precious time wasted, which also endangers the patient's life," said Dr Rajesh Kumar Singh, head of the clinical, emergency and trauma services at Artemis Hospitals. Hospital officials blame congested roads, potholes, waterlogging, and poor road discipline slowing down emergency vehicles, particularly on stretches around Rajiv Chowk, IFFCO Chowk, NH-48, Sohna Road, Golf Course Extension Road and the roads connecting residential areas to major hospitals. An ambulance driver who works for Civil Hospital, Gurugram, asking not to be named, said, "There are so many potholes in the way, especially in Old Gurugram, that cause vehicles to keep shaking, troubling the patient. The family of course holds us (drivers) responsible." The situation worsens when it rains. On Monday, when Gurugram tehsil received 75 mm of rain between 8 am and 5 pm, an ambulance was stuck at Sohna Road for around 30-40 minutes. An ambulance driver, who works at a government hospital, alleged that sometimes ambulance staff is forced to either carry or ask family members to bring the patients some distance away to the vehicle because of waterlogging. "It must be very difficult for them, but our vehicles break down in monsoon waters." The problem is not new. This year, during rains in July, ambulances were caught in the severe congestion on the Rajiv Chowk-Narsinghpur stretch after a section of NH-48 caved in. The nearly 10-km stretch took around 40-50 minutes to cross. In August 2025, residents told HT that a badly damaged road between Daultabad flyover and Dwarka Expressway was delaying ambulances and other emergency vehicles. In February 2024, an ambulance carrying a patient from Nuh to Gurugram remained stuck for around 20 minutes at Damdama Chowk. In November 2023, an ambulance was filmed stuck in a massive jam on the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway near the toll plaza. Gurugram traffic police itself acknowledged the problem in February 2024, announcing a Rs.10,000 fine for motorists blocking ambulances. Officers were deployed to travel with ambulances and record vehicles that failed to give way. The police said 52 motorists were fined Rs.10,000 each between February 15 and March 19, 2024. Traffic police could not immediately provide the latest database on action taken since then and said the details would be shared later. Assistant commissioner of police traffic (headquarter and highways) Satyapal Yadav told HT, "Our teams proactively work to clear traffic congestion whenever we get information about an ambulance being stuck somewhere. Earlier, we had tried to merge private ambulances into Dial 112 service but it did not work out. The department will plan out measures to ensure smoother transit of ambulances." There is, however, no publicly available consolidated government data capturing either the contours of Gurugram's emergency response infrastructure nor how it fares on the city's roads. When asked for comment, a Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) official told HT that 177km of the road has been repaired in eight months. "Our target is to revamp 396 kilometres of road. Due to the monsoon, all the bitumen projects are on a halt. We will resume the rest of the repairs as the monsoon season ends. Rest, we are carrying out repair works as per the complaints of residents on Mhari Sadar application." The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority denied having received any specific complaint from any hospital....