Railways’ production units tasked for exploring the possibility of making items for COVID-19 infected persons

APART from prioritising uninterrupted movement of freight trains and sanitizing the coaches and stations, Indian Railways, the principal transporter for the 1.3 billion citizens, is engaged in taking out of box initiatives in the wake of novel coronavirus outbreak. The latest initiative taken in this direction is  the instruction issued by The Railway Board to the general managers of the production units to explore the feasibility of manufacture of items like simple hospital beds, medical trolleys for hospitals and quarantine facilities like stretchers, hospital footsteps, hospital bedside lockers, washbasins with stands, ventilators, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kit like masks, sanitisers, water tanks. “The production facilities like Chittaranjan loco works, Chittaranjan, Integral coach factory, Chennai, Rail coach factory, Kapurthala, diesel loco works, Varanasi, rail wheel factory, Yelehanka mandated are to manufacture essential items which can be utilised for the treatment of affected people by this pandemic,” it said in a statement. Railways have already suspended the operations of passenger train services across the country till 31st March 2020. Currently, Indian Railways is operating only freight trains across the country. Indian Railways is making all efforts to ensure availability of essential commodities through its uninterrupted freight services. Indian Railways’’ staff deployed at various good sheds, stations and control offices is working on 24/7 basis to ensure that the supply of essential items for the nation does not gets affected. The statement sad. Close coordination is being maintained with the State Governments so that rakes of essential commodities are handled smoothly without any delay. An Emergency freight control is working in the Ministry of Railways. Freight movement is being closely monitored by officials at very senior level, a senior railway official said.