A senior Railway Ministry spokesperson said the railways in coordination with other Ministries and state governments was geared up to meet the challenge of providing protection to its front-line medical workers and other operational staff.

He said the railways workshops took up the challenge and raw material for producing these items was also procured by the field units. The PPE coverall target for June and July has been set at 1.5 lakh each, which is likely to be revised upwards.

The officer said during the lockdown, centralised procurement and distribution of the raw material and manufactured products throughout the railways network was accomplished under testing circumstances.

"Northern Railway was nominated for centralised procurement of raw material required for manufacture of PPE coveralls, a critical component with respect to quality. All in-house manufactured products satisfy all applicable quality standards," he said.

"To further strengthen the preparedness of railways, an order for 22 lakh PPE coveralls, 22.5 lakh N95 masks, 2.25 lakh liters hand sanitizer and other items was centrally placed by Northern Railway on HLL Life Care (PSU under MoHFW), for requirements of railway units," he said.

The national transporter has designated 50 railway hospitals as Covid dedicated hospitals and Covid dedicated health centres.

It also converted 5,231 railway coaches into isolation wards to serve as the Covid care centres to augment the capacity of health infrastructure. Till date, 960 coaches have been stationed at several locations based on requests received from the states.