East Coast Railway converts 261 coaches into coronavirus COVID-19 isolation wards

Bhubaneswar: The East Coast Railway (ECoR) has fulfilled its target of converting 261 sleeper and general coaches into "COVID-19 isolation coaches" amid the outbreak of coronavirus in the country. Indian Railways is offering 5000 coaches to be used as quarantine or isolation facilities amidst the outbreak of COVID-19.

The ECoR has converted 261 coaches to serve as quarantine or isolation facilities. The conversion has been done at different workshops and coaching depots of ECoR. These coaches have been kept at different stations across East Coast Railway.

 Mancheswar workshop has converted 51 coaches while the coaching depots at Puri has converted 39, coaching depots at Bhubaneswar have converted 46. Similarly, the Sambalpur coaching depot has converted 32, Vishakhapatnam coaching depot has converted 60, and coaching depot at Khurda Road station has converted 33 coaches as COVID-19 isolation coaches.

All essential facilities required by an individual have been provided by doing necessary changes 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, four bottle holders and three dustbins in each coach, laptop and mobile charging facilities, pillow, bedsheets, mug, and buckets in the bathrooms among other facilities have been provided.

Apart from these, necessary medical facilities like oxygen cylinders will also be provided. The first cabin of each coach will be used for the store/paramedics area and other cabins will be used for patients.

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 to serve for isolation and quarantine purposes whenever needed.

Even these trains can be sent to any part of the country whenever required, said a senior officer of East Coast Railway, Sakya Acharya.