Hyderabad: Railways to turn A city station as Covid facility

ON TRACK TO SERVE

• South Central Railway has converted 486 passenger coaches into isolation wards

• Each isolation coach will have eight coupes for COVID patients and one coupe for medical staff

• Coaches modified to have one bathroom, three toilets, curtains in between the coupes

Hyderabad: One of the three major stations in the city is to be designated as a Covid station soon. The Telangana government has approached the South Central Railway (SCR) and the latter has given an in-principle approval.

According to the people in the know of things, one of the three stations – Nampally, Kacheguda or Secunderabad – would be designated as a Covid station. Officials say that a team from the State government is expected to inspect the facilities at the stations and take a decision.

At present, the coaches are placed at various locations over the zone. Officials say it would not take time to get the coaches to the designated station.

It may be noted that earlier this year the Ministry of Railways had instructed all zonal railways to convert around 5,000 non-AC passenger coaches into isolation wards, as a contingency to aid in the endeavor to control the spread of the virus. The South Central Railway zone was given a target of 486 coaches.

The Lallaguda and the Tirupati workshops have completed the conversion of 76 and 84 coaches respectively. Secunderabad division converted 120 coaches, Hyderabad division 40 coaches, Vijayawada division 50, Guntakal division 61 coaches, Nanded division 30 coaches, and Guntur division 25 coaches. The Lallaguda workshop converted 76 coaches and Tirupati workshop converted 84 coaches.

The South Central Railway has converted all of the targeted 486 coaches as isolation wards. Each isolation coach will have eight coupes for COVID patients and one coupe for medical staff.

The coaches have been modified to have one bathroom, three toilets, curtains in between the coupes and all the necessary electrical and medical equipment, as per the advisory issued by Railway Board.