COVID-19: ECoR to convert 261 coaches into quarantine facilities

The East Coast Railway (ECoR) will convert 261 coaches to serve as isolation and quarantine facilities to help fight COVID-19 pandemic, a senior official said.

This conversion work is being carried out at different coaching depots and workshops situated across ECoR jurisdiction, the official said. Apart from transportation of essential commodities, supplying food to the needy, manufacturing of masks and sanitizers, ECoR has started converting its coaches into isolation/quarantine facilities.

While Mancheswar workshop in Bhubaneswar is doing conversion of 51 coaches, coaching depot at Puri will convert 39 coaches. Similarly, the depot in Bhubaneswar will undertake conversion of 46 coaches, while 32 coaches will be converted in Sambalpur, 60 in Vishakhapatnam and 33 at Khurda Road station, an ECoR statement said.

So far conversion of 23 coaches have been completed, one each at Mancheswar and Khurda Road, five at Puri, six each at Bhubaneswar and Sambalpur and four at Vishakhapatnam. All essential facilities required by an individual are be provided in the coaches. Mosquito nets at windows, one bathroom and three toilets in a coach, removal of the middle berth, six liquid soap dispensers in each coach are being provided.

Four bottle holders and three dustbins in each coupe, laptop and mobile charging facilities, pillow and bedsheets, plastic curtain at both ends of aisle area, mug and buckets in the bathrooms are also being provided.Apart from these, necessary medical facilities like oxygen cylinders will also be provided. The first cabin of each coach will be used for store/paramedics area and other cabins will be used for patients.

After conversion of these coaches, it will be attached to form trains and will be kept at different stations where all the medical facilities will be available. It has been decided to keep three trains at Bhubaneswar, two at Khurda Road, two at Sambalpur, one at Titlagarh, three at Vishakhapatnam, one at Vizianagaram, one at Cuttack and two at Puri, it said.

The target date for conversion of all the coaches is April 15 and ECoR has pooled all its resources to complete the task in time. 

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