A migrant worker hailing from Assam gave birth to a child while she was travelling by train to Alipurduar from Delhi on Thursday night.

Health officials of railways attended the mother and the child — a boy — and took them to the railway hospital in Alipurduar. On Friday morning, they headed for Assam.

Sources said Rejaul Sheikh, a resident of Choutara, a locality in Kokrajhar district of Assam, and his wife Amirun Begam serve as migrant workers in Delhi. The couple have a four-year-old daughter also.

Amirun, who was pregnant, was returning home with her husband and daughter for delivery. They were travelling by the Alipurduar-bound Mahananda Express from Delhi in a general compartment.

On Thursday night, as the train was running between New Mal and Nagrakata stations, Amirun complained of acute labour pain. Other female passengers came for help and she delivered a boy in the compartment.

As the train halted at Dalgaon station, a medical team and RPF personnel arrived and helped the mother and the baby as they got the information from on-duty ticket-checking staff.

Later, when the train reached Alipurduar Junction, the mother and baby were taken to the divisional railway hospital. Doctors examined them and found both in stable condition.

On Friday morning, railway authorities helped the couple to take another train to reach Kokrajhar.

“Both the mother and the baby are well and started for their home. We have the ‘Matri Suraksha’ App and in such emergency cases, anybody can seek help while being on board a train,” said Deepak Kumar Choudhury, the security commissioner of Alipurduar railway division of Northeast Frontier Railway.

Smoke in bus

Smoke started emanating from an NBSTC (North Bengal State Transport Corporation) bus in Cooch Behar on Friday.

Sources said the bus was heading towards Cooch Behar from Mathabhanga along the state highway. As it reached Suktabari, the passengers saw smoke emanating from the engine. They raised an alert prompting the driver to stop the bus. As the passengers got down, the driver was quick to disconnect the engine from the fuel pump.

Parthapratim Roy, the chairman of NBSTC, reached the stand. He spoke with engineers and mechanics and later said that only smoke had come out of the engine and there was no fire. “We have asked them to find out what led to the incident,” he said.

Additional reporting by our Cooch Behar correspondent