Delhi: 200 trains stopped in tracks to house coronavirus patients

NEW DELHI: From Tuesday, 200 train coaches will be present at Delhi’s busy Anand Vihar Terminal Railway Station. Rail services have been completely halted at the station, so the coaches are meant to house

Covid-19 patients

requiring isolation. A total of 500 of these innovative

isolation

wards, providing beds for 8,000 patients, are to be stationed across Delhi, 59 of which are already operational at Shakurbasti.


Deepak Kumar, chief PRO, Northern Railway, told TOI that the coaches will be placed on the platforms of the Anand Vihar station, the rail traffic there having been diverted to Delhi Junction Railway Station.

Northern Railway

had created the prototype of an isolation coach for the Union railways ministry in the last week of March, and this model has since been replicated in other zonal railway networks.

North Western Railway will send 150 repurposed coaches of the 266 it has made in various divisions in Rajasthan to Delhi, the remaining to be sent wherever required in the future. NWR chief PRO Abhay Sharma said in Jodhpur on Monday that the major alterations made to the regular coaches were removal of berths, redesigning of toilets, installation of transparent curtains and fittings for separating cubicles and to demarcate areas to store

medical equipment

. The roof has also been insulated to reduce in-coach temperature with the application of heat resistant paint on the roofs and installation of canopies.

Kumar revealed that 59 such coaches are already in-use at Shakurbasti, 200 will be placed at Anand Vihar, and Northern Railway was searching for sites that could accommodate 250 other coaches. “At present, our bedding capacity is around 4,000 beds,” said Kumar, elaborating that basic fittings like pillow covers and bedding material will be provided by Indian Railways, with the medical staff and equipment being the responsibility of Delhi government.

“Water, electricity, pillow covers, blankets and oxygen cylinders will form part of the basic coach preparation” Kumar added. “However, because the isolation coaches are an extension of Delhi’s medical system in a way, all equipment and healthcare workers will have to come from the state government.” There will be room in the coaches for doctors and nurses.

On Sunday, Union home minister Amit Shah had announced the provision of 500 train isolation coaches for Delhi, given the rising number of Covid cases in the capital. The participants in meeting included CM Kejriwal, Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, LG Anil Baijal and members of DDMA.

According to Northern Railway, adequate space has been made in coaches by removing some of the berths to ensure that patients are well isolated. “The ladders that help passengers climb to the upper berths have also been removed,” a railway official said. “The bathrooms, aisle areas and other sections too have been modified to facilitate proper isolation.”

The other features of the prototype Covid coach include the provision of hand showers and provision of bucket and mugs in each bathroom. Officials said two toilets had been converted into a bathroom after plugging the commode and covering the entire space with proper flooring. “We have also provided 220V electric points in the compartment for medical appliances,” the official added.

(With inputs from Jodhpur)