Patna: An express train leaving the pilgrimage city of Ajmer Sharif in north India made an emergency stop at a far-off station in Bihar after a pregnant woman went into early labour.
Railway sources said Navroj Begum, along with her husband Anjar Alam, was travelling on the Ajmer-Kishanganj Garib Nawaz Express to their home in Bihar late on Wednesday when she suddenly started experiencing labour pains.
Her husband rushed to the train guard and told him that his wife had gone into labour. The guard informed senior officials who ordered that the train make an unscheduled stop at the nearby Dighwara station, a lesser-known station between Sonepur and Chapra in Bihar.
Soon the railway track was cleared to ensure the train could stop at that station. Authorities also arranged a team of doctors with an ambulance at the station to attend to the passenger.
The doctors rushed her to the nearby government primary health centre where she finally delivered a baby girl. Both the mother and baby are healthy, officials said, adding that the train left the station only after getting the report that she was admitted to the hospital and was safe.
“The train made a 23-minute unscheduled stoppage at Dighwara after the guard alerted the Sonepur control room that a passenger travelling in the train could not wait to deliver [her baby] and needs immediate medical attention. It was done on humanitarian grounds,” a senior divisional commercial manager at the Sonepur division BNP Verma confirmed on Friday.
Authorities said the couple were from the Kochadhaman block in Kishanganj and they were on way to their village. The woman was returning with her husband who is a scrap dealer at Ajmer in Rajasthan.
