 Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 8: The nine cabins of trains at Jammu Railway Station has turned into isolation ward for patients as the virus spreads. Moreover, the authorities are mulling to develop such cabins at Kathua, Udhampur and Katra railway stations.
“These cabins can facilitate 48 patients and medical staff,” a railway official said.
“Out of nine cabins, 8 are for patients and one for medical staff,’ he said.
“We have prepared six coaches. In this, adequate arrangements have been made for the patients and medical staff. The isolation coach is placed with the parcel office, so that it is easy for the patient to reach the coach,” he added
“The isolation coach at the Jammu railway station was fully prepared on Tuesday. However, no patients have been kept yet. The isolation coach will thoroughly sanitized before utilization,” he further said.
It is pertinent to mention here that, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 25, Indian Railways took the unprecedented move of suspending passenger trains across the country until April 14.
It was the first time in 167 years that Asia’s oldest rail network had been suspended.
Now the railway network has decided to convert as many as 20,000 old train carriages into isolation wards for patients as the virus spreads.
The network, which is the world’s fourth-largest rail operator and India’s biggest employer, already operates 125 hospitals across the nation, so has the expertise to expand into mobile beds. |
