The South Western Railway Zone had already achieved the target of converting 312 coaches into isolation wards (coaches) with a 2,400-bed capacity (eight beds in a coach), Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi has said.
Speaking to presspersons after inspecting, along with Minister for Large and Medium Industries Jagadish Shettar, the railway coaches that have been now converted into isolation coaches at the Carriage Repair Workshop in Hubballi on Friday, Mr. Angadi lauded the railway employees for completing the target in just 11 days.
The Union Minister said that like the Health and Police departments, Railways too was working 24 x 7 in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic. “In a bid to increase the country’s capacity for isolation facilities, the Railways has converted sleeper class coaches into COVID-19 isolation wards suitable to be as quarantine hubs,” he said.
Mr. Angadi said that the deployment /movement of these isolation coaches would be decided by the Ministry of Health and National Disaster Management Cell and these coaches would supplement the number of isolation beds in hospitals, if a need arises.
The Minister said that the Railway Police Force in collaboration with IRCTC had been providing food to the needy persons at various stations across the country and in Hubballi, the number of meals distributed so far stood at 29,000.
MLA Arvind Bellad, General Manager of South Western Railway Ajay Kumar Singh and senior railway officials were present on the occasion.
As on Friday, South Western Railway has converted 313 coaches, as against the target of 312 coaches, into isolation wards. While 96 coaches were converted into isolation wards at the Hubballi workshop, 89 were converted at the Mysuru Workshop, 61 in Bengaluru and 32 in the Mysuru Division.
