Chennai Metro enables swift transport of donor lungs for transplant

Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) on Sunday said it successfully transported donor lungs for transplantation through its metro network, allowing the medical team to reach Apollo Hospitals, Greams Road in just 21 minutes.

The transport was facilitated under the Metro Railways (Carriage and Ticket) Amendment Rules, 2023, which allow movement of human organs via metro trains as per guidelines issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).

The organ consignment had arrived from Bengaluru by air ambulance and reached Meenambakkam Metro Station at 2.07 pm on November 8. With assistance from metro officials and station staff, the medical team boarded a train and travelled seven stations to AG-DMS, reaching at 2.28 pm. From there, the organs were immediately transported by road ambulance to the hospital, where the transplant surgery was scheduled.

CMRL noted that this is not the first instance of the metro aiding organ transportation. Since the amendment of carriage rules, Chennai Metro has on earlier occasions facilitated the rapid movement of organs for transplant procedures, helping medical teams bypass road traffic and save critical time.

BJP leader and former Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan praised the initiative, highlighting the central government’s ‘One Nation, One Organ’ policy, which enables organs to be shared efficiently across states. She congratulated the doctors and medical teams from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, noting that the process operates under the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act (THOTA), 1994.

This system, known as ‘One Nation, One Organ’, ensures that organs can be shared across states to save lives efficiently.