Old train coaches to be used as shelters

HYDERABAD: With the state government exploring the possibility of using old and condemned railway passenger coaches as shelters for needy and homeless at the request of the Union ministries of housing and urban affairs and railways, the Telangana Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (TMEMPA) has directed 16 urban local bodies (ULBs), in whose areas 21 new shelters, six of them in Greater Hyderabad, are proposed to be set up during 2017-18, to submit their requirement.

The central government has proposed use of old railway passenger coaches as shelters for the homeless till full-fledged new shelters are constructed in cities and towns. The places where new shelters are to be built in the current financial year include six in Greater Hyderabad and one each in Adilabad, Kamareddy, Karimnagar, Mancheriyal, Medchal, Bhainsa, Nirmal, Armoor, Nizamabad, Vemulawada, Shadnagar, Huzurnagar, Kodad, Yellandu and Bhongir.

MAUD secretary Navin Mittal recently asked TMEPMA mission director T K Sreedevi to  intimate number of coaches required for the purpose. Sreedevi, in turn, asked ULBs for the number of coaches required by them.

The railway ministry suggested that condemned coaches may be used as shelters for the homeless after giving water supply and sewerage connections. Railways  offered the condemned coaches on ‘as is where is’ basis and the coaches can be moved by the organisations to places where shelters are to arranged.

Till permanent shelters are established by ULBs as per guidelines of Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission, condemned railway coaches may be used as shelters for urban poor. ULBs are to consider issues such as approach way to shelters, disposal of waste, availability of water and other facilities. The cost of refurbishment of these coaches would be met from DAY-NULM funds.