East Coast Railways converts 261 coaches into 'COVID-19 isolation wards'

The East Coast Railway achieved its target of converting 261 train coaches into COVID-19 isolation wards to help the country fight the Coronavirus pandemic.

The coaches were converted at different workshops and coaching depots of the ECoR. These isolation coaches have been placed at different stations across East Coast Railway. While the Mancheswar workshop converted 51 coaches, the depots at Puri converted 39. Coaching depots at Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur, Vishakhapatnam and Khurda Road station have set up  46, 32, 60 and 33 COVID-19 isolation coaches respectively.

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Facilities at the isolation wards

All essential facilities required at isolation wards have been provided in these special coaches. Some of the necessary facilities include mosquito nets at windows, one bathroom and three toilets in a coach, six liquid soap dispensers in each coach, four bottle holders and three dustbins in each coach, laptop and mobile charging facilities, pillow, bedsheets, mug and buckets in the bathrooms, etc. Along with these, necessary medical facilities include oxygen cylinders a  paramedics area in the first cabin of each coach.

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For isolation and quarantine purposes, two trains have been kept 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. These can be sent to any part of the country whenever required.

The Indian Railways has offered 5,000 coaches to be used as quarantine or isolation facilities to effectively tackle the Coronavirus outbreak.

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(With inputs from ANI)