The Magic Train of India

Miraculously, a hospital that comes to its patients

"You know," said Jawaharlal Nehru one day, " sometime you ought to use a train, the Indian Railways. It is most efficient and covers every village. "

When Pandit Nehru voiced himself to Sir John Wilson, a prominent British Advocate for the disabled, founder of IMPACT, little did Panditji realize that his words would some day germinate the concept of a hospital-train.

The leaders of Impact India took up the challenge of turning Sir John's idea into reality and created the Lifeline Express ( Jeevan Rekha ), bringing the benefits of modern medicine free of cost to millions of poor villagers in rural India.

The Train carries hope for the crippled children of India

The Lifeline Express, the world's first hospital on a train, for outreach into inaccessible rural areas where medical services are not available; offering on-the-spot diagnostic, medical and advanced surgical treatment for preventive and curative interventions for the handicapped, using the Indian Railway Network which is the largest in the world comprising about 63,500 kilometres of tracks.

The LIFELINE EXPRESS hospital train has become a model for transfer of Indian appropriate technology to setting up similar projects in China, Zimbabwe and a hospital river boat "Jibon Tori", in Bangladesh.

This project has been developed in collaboration with the Indian Railways and Health Ministry. It has been funded by Impact UK, international charitable sources, Indian corporate houses and individuals.

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