New Chennai-Bengaluru expressway to reduce travel time to 2 hours

CHENNAI: Nitin Jairam Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways of India on Saturday announced that an expressway between Chennai and Bengaluru will facilitate travel between these two cities in two hours.

"The issue of logistics for organ transplants can be resolved by better land and air connectivity. We understand that land transport helps in further timely organ transplants. Schemes such as Bharatmata Pariyojana and highway expressways have helped in faster reach of organs for transplantation between cities and States," he said.

He added that the government is in the process of starting several express highways, including one from Chennai to Bengaluru, that will help in the transportation of organs between two cities in two hours. For hospitals in South India, particularly Chennai and Bengaluru, the expressway will reduce the transportation time. The alignment, land documentation works and others are in progress currently," he said.

He was addressing the media after honouring Dr K R Balakrishnan, Chairman - Cardiac Sciences, Director - Institute of Heart and Lung Transplant - Mechanical Circulatory Support, MGM Healthcare and his team for having performed over 500 heart and lung transplants successfully in India and running the largest adult and paediatric heart transplant program in India. The record 500 plus heart and lung transplants are the highest numbers performed by one team in the entire Asia Pacific region.

He also unveiled India’s first ‘prototype’ drone technology co-created by MGM Healthcare, aimed at revolutionising last-mile transportation of organs for transplants.

Health Minister Ma Subramanian commended the prototype and said that this would pave the way for more lives to be saved and ensured all support to make it operational soon.

Nitin Gadkari further said that we need to reach the next milestone by making medical care easily accessible in rural parts of the country. "The research and development in organ transplantation including transportation of organs through drones are welcome. The government is taking measures to strengthen medical tourism in the country and we are supporting it through logistics development and infrastructure improvement. At the same time, it is important to spread awareness on organ donation," he said. He also suggested that tertiary hospitals can associate with hospitals in small towns to promote organ donation.

Talking about the achievement of 500 transplants, Dr K R Balakrishnan said, “We have completed 514 heart and lung transplants, including over 200 transplants over the last two years despite lockdowns, and the Covid-19 pandemic and this was possible due to the tremendous support and expertise of the team, the government bodies and transport teams."