India has nearly 20,000 organ transplants annually, yet only 18% use deceased donors. Hyderabad Metro’s latest mission highlights why every donated organ matters.
In a remarkable display of precision and coordination, Hyderabad Metro Rail helped save lives by facilitating the rapid transport of a donor heart and lungs across the city, reinforcing its growing role in emergency medical services.
The life-saving mission saw the organs travel from CARE Hospitals in Gachibowli to KIMS Hospitals in Secunderabad, covering about 14 kilometres across 13 metro stations in just 25 minutes. The priority transit ensured the organs reached their destination within the narrow window required for successful transplantation.
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Metro’s Green Corridor Speeds Up Life-Saving Organ Delivery
The operation was carried out through close coordination between Hyderabad Metro Rail, hospital teams, transplant coordinators, police, and emergency medical personnel. The donor organs were first transported by ambulance to Raidurg Metro Station before being placed on a specially coordinated metro service that travelled non-stop to Rasoolpura station, where another ambulance rushed them to the hospital for transplant surgery.
With Hyderabad’s traffic often posing a challenge during medical emergencies, the metro offered a faster and more predictable alternative. By bypassing road congestion, the transport team was able to preserve the viability of both the donor heart and lungs, where every minute can significantly affect transplant success.
This is not the first time Hyderabad Metro has supported organ transportation. The metro has increasingly partnered with hospitals and Telangana’s transplant network to create rapid transit corridors for organs destined for critically ill patients awaiting transplantation.
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Telangana’s Jeevandan Programme Leads the Way
The successful transport also highlights the role of Jeevandan, Telangana’s deceased organ donation programme, which coordinates organ retrieval, allocation and transplantation across the state. The programme has become one of India’s most successful organ donation initiatives, ensuring transparent and timely allocation of organs to patients in need.
Telangana continues to lead the country in deceased organ donation. A recent study reported that the state achieved an organ donation rate of 5.54 donors per million population in 2023—far above India’s national average of less than one donor per million population.
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India Marks Organ Donation Awareness This August
The Hyderabad Metro operation comes just ahead of Indian Organ Donation Day, observed on August 3, which this year coincides with the Government of India’s “Angdaan – Jeevan Sanjeevani Abhiyan.” ()
Led by the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO), the year-long campaign aims to dispel myths about organ donation, encourage more people to pledge their organs, and strengthen deceased organ donation across the country. India also observes World Organ Donation Day on August 13, reinforcing the global call to raise awareness about organ transplantation.
The campaign comes as India continues to make steady progress in organ donation. The country recorded more than 18,900 organ transplants in 2024, the highest ever in a single year, while the number of registered donors has crossed 4.8 lakh through NOTTO’s Aadhaar-based donor registry.
Organ transplants have grown from fewer than 5,000 in 2013 to nearly 20,000 in 2025. Despite these gains, only around 18% of transplants involve organs from deceased donors, highlighting the urgent need for greater public awareness and donor registration.
MOHAN Foundation Strengthens India’s Transplant Network
The mission to improve organ donation in India has also been strengthened by the MOHAN (Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network) Foundation, () one of the country’s leading non-profit organizations dedicated to organ donation awareness and transplant coordination. Founded in 1997, the foundation has trained thousands of healthcare professionals, transplant coordinators, police personnel, and medical students while conducting public awareness campaigns across India.
It also manages a 24×7 organ donation helpline, counsels donor families, and works closely with hospitals and state governments to improve deceased organ donation rates. Through its advocacy and education initiatives, the MOHAN Foundation has played a key role in shaping India’s organ donation ecosystem and encouraging more people to pledge their organs, helping save countless lives through transplantation.
Health experts note that a single deceased donor can save up to eight lives through organ donation and improve many more through tissue donation. Yet thousands of patients across India continue to wait for a suitable heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, or other organs.
The latest mission by Hyderabad Metro demonstrates how efficient transport infrastructure, combined with coordinated healthcare systems, can make the difference between life and death. As awareness around organ donation continues to grow, initiatives like Jeevandan and rapid medical transit networks are helping ensure that every donated organ has the best possible chance of reaching the patient who needs it most.
References:
- Union Health Minister Shri Jagat Prakash Nadda addresses the 15th Indian Organ Donation Day Ceremony – (https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2151756®=48&lang=2)
- MOHAN Foundation – (https://www.mohanfoundation.org/)
Source-Medindia