West Bengal: Railways halts train at unscheduled station as Bangladeshi woman delivers baby on board

Railways stops train: In a humanitarian gesture, the Indian Railways halted a long-distance train at an unscheduled station in West Bengal’s Howrah to enable a Bangladeshi woman to reach hospital after she gave birth to a baby on the train, officials said on Sunday (July 23).

Following the direction of the concerned authorities, the Mumbai-Howrah Mail made an unscheduled halt at Bagnan station on Saturday, they said.

Upon the arrival of the train, an ambulance was arranged outside the station with the help of railway authorities and the daily passengers' association. The woman and the newborn were taken to a nursing home, an RPF official said.

The woman, identified as Manjila Khatun, hails from the Satkhira district of Bangladesh. She and her husband Rezaul Gazi went to Mumbai for medical purposes and were on their way back, the official said.

The woman went into labour after the train departed the Kharagpur station in West Bengal.

The travelling ticket examiner drew the attention of the concerned authorities after the receipt of the information from the passengers that the woman was experiencing labour pain.

"The health condition of the woman and her baby was stated to be stable. Later, they were shifted to a hospital in Kolkata for better treatment as the baby was premature," an official of the nursing home said. The decision to stop the train at an unscheduled station was taken on humanitarian grounds," said a railway official at the Bagnan station.

(With PTI inputs)

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