Lifeline Express: Here’s all you need to know about India’s first hospital train
We all know that the Indian Railways is reckoned as one of the world’s largest rail networks. To start with, here some more railway facts that will make you proud as an Indian for sure. Indian Railways owns the world’s longest platform that is 1366 metres long and is located at Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. Nagpur has the famous Diamond Crossing that connects the tracks from North, South, East and West. Oh, Indian Railways is also the largest employer in the country and has a cute mascot too! He is named Bholu, a cute little elephant dressed as a railway guard.
In case you are thinking that’s about it, well, that’s far from it. While there are numerous other interesting facts about Indian Railways, one is of course that it runs the world’s first hospital train known. It is known as the Lifeline Express. Today, we are going to learn all about it.
Lifeline Express: A sneak peek
Popularly deemed as the Jeevan Rekha Express, the Lifeline Express has been operational since 16th July 1991. Back then, it was a collaborative effort by the Indian Railways, the Impact India Foundation and the Union Health Ministry. The train and its services are funded by the Impact India Foundation, apart from other charitable sources, NGOs, corporations and individuals.
The hospital train started off with three coaches donated by the Indian Railways that had full hospital infrastructure, including one operation theatre was run by the Impact India Foundation. In 2007, after 93 successful projects, five new coaches were added (making the count of operation theatres to two) and the name Jeevan Rekha Express was coined, realising its potential. Later, in 2016, two additional coaches were also provided. Since then, the ten-coached hospital train has been serving Indians with quality medical care.
Why a hospital train?
The Lifeline Express was introduced as an outreach programme for remote and inaccessible areas around India where medical services are either now available or bad in quality. The main emphasis however was on adults and children with special abilities who needed emergency diagnosis and advanced treatment in case of both preventive and curative conditions. Apart from providing medical services, the Lifeline Express also aims to improve the efficiency of local and state governments, encouraging them to actively maintain their health infrastructure and services. The goal is to get the local bodies involved in further caretaking, once the train departs after a usual duration of 21 to 25 days. Apart from serving the rural areas, the hospital train also attends areas struck by natural or manmade disasters.
Services offered
Some of the most widely availed services include: Orthopaedic intervention, eye care, vaccine provisions, all kinds of medical tests, dental procedures, immunisation and other preventive measures, nutritional services and assessments, promoting health and hygiene awareness among rural and semi-urban population and providing hands-on training to allied professionals and health volunteers in the region. The train is fully air-conditioned and has constant CCTV monitoring. The hospital train proved extremely useful during the Covid-19 period, when Indian Railways had turned the sleeper cars into isolation wards for rural people.