A heart harvested from a patient in Tamil Nadu's Madurai was on May 23rd night transported through a "green corridor", created from the Delhi airport to a city hospital, in 13 minutes, officials said.

The heart had to be transplanted in a 45-year-old man, they added. The organ was first flown in from Madurai to the Delhi airport in a chartered plane and later taken to the hospital by road, Delhi Police officials said. "A green corridor was today provided from T1 - Delhi's domestic airport to the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital for transportation of a heart. The total distance of 11 km was covered in 13 minutes," a senior official said.

SGR Hospital authorities said the operation was "still underway". "We received the heart at about 8:30 pm. The recipient is a 45-year-old male and a resident of Delhi. He is suffering from end-stage heart failure. The surgerywas performed by a team led by the director of the heart transplantation programme, Dr Sujay Shad.