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Updated April 18th, 2021 at 18:50 IST

Railways convert train coaches to COVID care facilities amid bed shortages across states

Indian Railways converted 4,002 train coaches as a COVID-19 care-cum-isolation facility to assist state governments facing shortage of beds in their states

Reported by: Pritesh Kamath
Railways
Piyush Goyal Twitter/PTI | Image:self
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Amid the dangerously alarming surge in the COVID-19 infections across the country, the Indian Railways has converted 4,002 train coaches as a COVID-19 care-cum-isolation facility to assist the state governments facing a shortage of beds in their respective states. The coaches will be allocated to state governments on request, the ministry said in a release while adding that it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's idea to convert the railway coaches into a COVID care facility.

Union Minister for Railways, Piyush Goyal took to Twitter to post a few pictures of railway coaches converted to COVID-19 care centre in Maharashtra's Nandurbar. The Railways has deployed 94 coaches in Maharashtra's Nandurbar. These coaches would be used by the state government when they exhaust their own medical facilities. The middle berth in the coaches has been removed to convert it to COVID-19 facilities.

Moreover, the Northern Railways has deployed 50 isolation coaches having two oxygen cylinders each at Delhi's Shakur Basti railway station and 25 such facilities will be placed at Anand Vihar by Monday. This development came after the Delhi government requested the Railways to arrange up to 5,000 beds in view of the rising Coronavirus cases in the national capital.

Also amid the shortage of medical oxygen which is essential in the treatment of COVID-19 patients, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra state governments had approached the Ministry of Railways to explore whether Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) tankers could be moved by trains. Railways immediately formulated a policy for the transport of liquid medical oxygen in cryogenic containers. The policy stated that the cryogenic tankers will be transported as a paid-for roll on-roll of (Ro-Ro) service to various destinations across states. The trains that will transport liquid medical oxygen are being termed as 'Oxygen Express'.

Last year, during the first wave of coronavirus, Indian Railways had deployed several COVID Care coaches in various states including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Madhya Pradesh.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday chaired a meeting to review the status of preparedness to handle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Various aspects relating to medicines, oxygen, ventilators and vaccination were discussed. The Prime Minister directed that close coordination with States must be ensured in handling the pandemic. He said that all necessary measures must be taken to ramp up the availability of hospital beds for Covid patients. The Prime Minister also directed that additional supply of beds through temporary hospitals and isolation centres should be ensured.

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Published April 18th, 2021 at 18:50 IST

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