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In a remarkable achievement for Tamil Nadu's healthcare and transport sectors, the Chennai Metro Rail was used as a green corridor on Saturday, November 8, to quickly transport a donor lung from Bengaluru to Apollo Hospitals on Greams Road. The organ was carried by a Metro train from Meenambakkam to
AG-DMS Station, covering 10.82 km across seven stations in just 21 minutes.
Chennai Metro Rail Limited's New Organ Transport Initiative
The lungs were donated by a deceased person at NIMHANS, Bengaluru, and brought to Chennai by air ambulance, which landed at 1.52 pm. A six-member medical team then reached Meenambakkam Metro Station at 2.07 pm and, with help from Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) officials, boarded the train to AG-DMS, arriving at 2.28 pm. From there, an ambulance took the organ to Apollo Hospitals for the transplant surgery.
CMRL officials said that the operation went smoothly because of proper coordination between the origin and destination stations. The transport was made possible under the Metro Railways (Carriage and Ticket) Amendment Rules, 2023, issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), which now allows authorised medical staff to carry human organs in Metro trains for transplant purposes.
Apollo Hospitals thanked all the teams involved, including Jeevasarthakathe (Karnataka), TRANSTAN (Tamil Nadu), airport authorities, Chennai Traffic Police, and the Metro Rail team, for their joint effort. They said the use of the Metro ensured the lungs remained viable for transplantation.
Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan, BJP leader and former Telangana Governor, praised the operation as an example of the Centre's "One Nation One Organ" policy under the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act (THOTA), 1994.
This was the first time Metro infrastructure was used for organ transport in Tamil Nadu, following similar initiatives in Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
