India, Feb. 8 -- The Delhi government's ambitious free ambulance service under the CATS (Centralised Accident & Trauma Services) programme, which sought to decrease response time to emergencies, remains largely ineffective, with residents sharing concerns about a paucity of ambulances, lack of accountability from the helpline operators and long waiting times.

Ground checks by HT found that the response time to an emergency still remains wildly variable, mostly at the higher end of the average claimed by the authorities, besides other problems such as unresponsive helpline and erratic responses from respondents.

Between December 24, 2024 and January 25, multiple calls by HT to the 102 helpline set up for the purpose was met with a lack o...