MUMBAI, Jan 3, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A popular Indian food delivery app has started offering a private ambulance service, looking to use its logistics know-how to help bolster the country's patchy healthcare system.

Zomato's online shopping arm Blinkit said it was rolling out "reliable" ambulance services with essential life-saving equipment, medicine and trained paramedics.

The platform has pushed the limits of rapid mobile commerce in India over the last few years, with the help of a network of local warehouses and tens of thousands of delivery riders.

The tech firm, along with its rivals, has also expanded beyond traditional food delivery business into having everything from groceries to electronics dropped off at doorsteps in 10 minutes.

But its healthcare foray marks new territory for the company.

"We are taking our first step towards solving the problem of providing quick and reliable ambulance service in our cities," Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa said in a post on social media platform X.

Dhindsa said the first ambulances were deployed on Thursday.

"Profit is not a goal here," Dhindsa added. "We will operate this service at an affordable cost for customers and invest in really solving this critical problem for the long term".

The app is starting small -- only five ambulances are currently available in Gurugram, a satellite city of India's capital New Delhi-- but the company plans to expand to "all major cities over the next two years".

While the initial rollout may be limited, it will likely be welcomed in a country whose healthcare system is inadequately funded and understaffed.

In 2020, a study by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences --funded by a government-backed think-tank -- found that 88 percent of secondary-level district hospitals had in-house ambulances, but "trained paramedics needed to assist ambulance services were present only in three percent".

Indian social media users were left both amused and concerned by the ambulance service.

"What a genius move by Zomato's Blinkit! First, they deliver junk food and chips, and sooner or later, you'll need hospitalisation -- hence the ambulance!," said one user on X.

Another pointed out that citizens should ask why the Indian government was unable to "provide a basic, reliable ambulance service".