Indian Railways has started providing converted COVID care train coaches for suspected and confirmed Corona patients, deployed in various states.

Indian Railways COVID train coaches get positive feedback! Sustaining the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways has started providing converted COVID care train coaches for suspected and confirmed Corona patients, deployed in various states. On 20 June 2020, as many as 42 COVID-19 suspected patients were admitted in the coaches deployed at Mau Junction railway station in Varanasi division and 17 patients were admitted on 21 June 2020. Of them, eight patients have been discharged already.

Interestingly, the first inmates of the Indian Railways’ converted isolation wards have come away praising the national transporter for providing a unique solution to care for suspected COVID-19 patients, according to a PTI report. According to them, these coaches offer many facilities that one can expect in top-class hospital like clean toilets, comfortable beds, colour-coded dustbins, oxygen cylinders along with other amenities. However, they only complained about the mosquitoes, which were everywhere, the report said.

A total of 5,231 COVID care coaches are available to be provided to states by Indian Railways used for very mild or mild novel coronavirus cases. As of now, the national transporter has deployed 960 such coaches in five states- Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Andhara Pradesh.

Out of these 960 COVID care coaches, 503 number of coaches have been deployed in Delhi, 60 coaches in Telangana, 20 coaches in Andhra Pradesh, 5 coaches in Madhya Pradesh and 372 coaches in Uttar Pradesh. In the national capital, 503 COVID care coaches are deployed at nine different locations- 50 coaches at Shakurbasti, 267 coaches at Anand Vihar, 21 coaches at Delhi Safdarjung, 50 coaches at Delhi Sarai Rohilla, 33 coaches at Delhi Cantt., 30 coaches at Adarsh Nagar, 13 coaches at Delhi Shahadra, 13 coaches at Tughlakabad and 26 coaches at Patel Nagar.

As many as 372 coaches have been deployed in UP at 23 locations- Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction, Lucknow, Varanasi, Bhadohi, Mirzapur, Subedarganj, Faizabad, Saharanpur, Kanpur, Jhansi Workshop, Agra, Jhansi, Nakha Jungle, Bahraich, Varanasi City, Manduadih, Mau, Bhatni, Gonda, Nautanwa, Farrukhabad, Bareilly City, and Kasganj. In the state of Madhya Pradesh, five such coaches are deployed at Gwalior. In the state of Andhra Pradesh, 20 coaches are deployed at Vijayawada while in the state of Telangana, 60 coaches are deployed at three different locations i.e. Kachguda, Adilabad, and Secunderabad.