Follow TNM's WhatsApp channel for news updates and story links.
In a landmark achievement for Tamil Nadu’s healthcare and transport sectors, the Chennai Metro Rail turned into a green corridor on Saturday, November 8, to facilitate the swift movement of a donor lung for transplantation from Bengaluru to Apollo Hospitals on Greams Road. The organ was transported by Metro train from Meenambakkam to AG-DMS Metro Station — covering 10.82 km across seven stations in just 21 minutes.
The lungs, harvested from a deceased donor at NIMHANS, Bengaluru, were first brought to Chennai by air ambulance, which landed at 1.52 pm at the city airport. The six-member medical team reached Meenambakkam Metro Station at 2.07 pm and, with assistance from Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) officials, boarded the train to AG-DMS. They arrived at 2.28 pm, from where an ambulance transported the organs to Apollo Hospitals, where the transplant procedure was scheduled to take place.
CMRL officials said they coordinated seamlessly between the origin and destination stations to ensure safe and uninterrupted transport.
The successful transport was made possible under the Metro Railways (Carriage and Ticket) Amendment Rules, 2023, issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). The amendment permits authorised medical personnel to carry human organs or tissues in Metro trains for transplantation purposes.
Officials from Apollo Hospitals said the green corridor ensured the viability of the lungs during transfer. “This seamless operation was made possible through the coordinated efforts of Jeevasarthakathe (Karnataka), TRANSTAN (Tamil Nadu), airport authorities, Chennai Traffic Police, and the Metro Rail team,” the hospital said in a statement.
Congratulating the medical teams, BJP leader and former Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan hailed the event as a testament to the Centre’s “One Nation One Organ” policy. “This initiative shows how organs can now be shared efficiently across states — from Kashmir to Kanyakumari — under the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act (THOTA), 1994,” she said in a post on X.
https://x.com/DrTamilisai4BJP/status/1987314925581242521?s=20
This marks the first-ever instance in Tamil Nadu of Metro infrastructure being used for organ transport, joining similar initiatives previously implemented by the Hyderabad and Bengaluru Metro Rail systems.