Woman gives birth to girl on Metro train

New Delhi : A 27-year-old woman gave birth to a baby girl on a Delhi Metro train Sunday morning. This was the first such incident on the Delhi Metro, an official said.

Juli Devi, 27, was later taken to hospital by Metro officials, who said both the mother and the baby were doing well.

The Faridabad woman gave birth at 7.28 a.m. as the train was approaching the Central Secretariat station. She was on her way to Safdarjung Hospital.

“Juli Devi, who boarded the train in Badarpur was travelling with her husband Sanjit Singh. She gave birth to a baby girl in the moving train, as it was approaching Central Secretariat station,” a Metro official told IANS.

The woman was in a general compartment. But being an Sunday, the compartment was virtually empty.

“As the incident occurred at early Sunday morning, there were only about six people in the particular coach,” a metro official told IANS.

“As the other passengers heard Juli Devi’s cries becoming more intense, they informed the driver near the Khan Market Metro station, a stop before Central Secretariat,” the official said.

“The Metro driver informed the operation control centre (OCC) in Metro Bhawan, the headquarters of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Barakhmaba Road, over phone, and they immediately arranged an ambulance and a team at the Central Secretariat Metro station within three minutes. As the train reached the station, the team rushed the mother and the new-born to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, which was the nearest,” the official said.

Metro authorities also took care of all the other necessary formalities at the hospital.

According to Delhi Metro, services were not affected due to the incident.

“The line was not halted, as the incident happened when the train reached Central Secretariat and it was the last station. The train after a halt of three to five minutes goes back to Badarpur,” the official said.

The official said that it was the first birth on the Delhi Metro system.

“Our metro train operators do get emergency calls, like commuters feeling dizzy or not well, but this is the first time a woman has given birth to a baby in the Metro train,” the official said.

The expenses the family incurred at the hospital will be borne by the DMRC, an official statement said.

The Delhi Metro which makes over 2,700 trips a day covering about 70,000 km and carrying around 1.8 million passengers on working days, has tie-ups with ambulance services across the city. The Metro station staff are also provided phone numbers of nearby hospitals so that immediate medical attention can be provided to the commuters, in case of any emergency.