Amid spike in Covid-19 cases, 3 states seek isolation coaches from railways

Amid rising Covid-19 cases, the Delhi, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh governments have sought help from the railways for allocating coronavirus isolation coaches prepared by the national carrier, the railway ministry said on Thursday.

The demand for the special coaches has come nearly two months after they were prepared.

Trains with a composition of 10 coaches and patient capacity of 16 people have been made ready. A total of 5,231 coaches were modified to be used as ‘Covid Care Centres, the ministry said.

The first such Covid Care Centres was deployed at Shakur Basti railway station in New Delhi on May 31 consisting of 10 non-AC coaches with 160 beds and three AC coaches, for healthcare staffers, including doctors.

This comes at a time when the national capital till Thursday reported 31,309 Covid-19 positive cases and 905 deaths, while Uttar Pradesh has 11,335 positive cases with 301 deaths and Telangana 3,920 positive cases with 148 deaths.

The UP government has asked for Covid coaches to be stationed across 24 locations with a minimum of 10 coaches as Covid Care Centres at railway stations including Varanasi City, Jhansi, Gorakhpur, Gonda, Bareilly City, Saharanpur, Sonbhadra and Azamgarh among other stations. Telangana has sought 60 Covid coaches to be stationed at three locations; Secunderabad, Kachiguda and Adilabad and 10 coaches have been stationed at Delhi’s Shakur Basti station, officials said.

“Sustaining the fight against Covid-19, Indian Railways is making an all out effort to supplement the health care efforts of the Government of India. Indian Railways has geared up to provide its 5,231 Covid Care Centers to the state. Zonal Railways has converted these coaches for quarantine facility,” the ministry said on Thursday.

“The coaches can be used for very mild cases that can be clinically assigned to the Covid Care Centres as per guidelines issued by the MoHFW. These coaches can be used in areas where the state has exhausted the facilities and needs to augment capacities for isolation of both suspected and confirmed Covid-19 cases. These facilities are part of the integrated Covid-19 plan developed by MoHFW and Niti Aayog,” it added.

The coaches that had been languishing for nearly two months with no takers were also deployed by the railway board to be used for Shramik Special trains.

The railway board had written to zones in May seeking to take back 60% of the Covid-19 coaches to be utilised as Shramik trains.

“The board desires that 60 per cent of isolation coaches (amounting to 3,120 coaches) meant for intervention of Covid-19 cases, railways may utilise them for running of Shramik Special trains. It is permitted by board,” the order issued on May 21 said.

The national carrier had initially decided to convert 5,000 coaches for over 80,000 patients and later had said it will convert 20,000 coaches for over 3.16 lakh Covid-19 patients.

The Centre in May had drafted a plan to deploy 5,231 railway coaches as isolation wards across 215 stations in 15 states “considering the possibility of an increase in cases of Covid-19.”

“Out of 215 stations, the Railways will provide healthcare facilities in 85 stations, in 130 stations, states to request Covid Care Coaches only if they agree to provide staff and essential medicines. Indian Railways has kept 158 stations ready with watering and charging facility and 58 stations with watering facility for these Covid Care Centres,” the ministry said.

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