A 29-year-old woman who was due to deliver 10 days later started having labour pains in a bus she boarded from Park Circus on Tuesday morning.

She delivered a boy baby on Basanti Highway, around 8km from the government hospital she was returning from after her check-up.

Manwara Bibi with her newborn and her sister-in-law Shabina Bibi were on the road for close to 30 minutes with a few people to help them till a police vehicle rescued them.

Both mother and baby have been admitted to Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital.

Manwara, a resident of Bhojerhat off Basanti Highway, had visited the hospital with Shabina for her check-up. “We were told at the hospital that the delivery date was 10 days later. We completed her check-up and boarded a bus for home,” Shabina said. “Her labour pain started in the bus and we had no choice but to get off, hoping to catch another bus to return to the hospital.”

The two women got off the bus at West Chowbaga on Basanti Highway and could barely cross the road when Manwara went into labour. “I started shouting… an old woman from the neighbourhood came to our help. But others did not. The baby was born on the road. I was standing helplessly when a police vehicle came out of nowhere,” Shabina said.

Souvik Chakraborty, the additional officer-in-charge of Tiljala traffic guard, was on his daily round when he spotted the women with the baby. He arranged to take them to hospital.

“We were told that the woman and the child had been lying on the road for quite some time. It goes without saying they were most vulnerable at that time and needed immediate medical care,” the officer said. “We could manage to get the woman admitted to the gynaecology department of Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital. Now, both mother and baby are doing fine.”