After successfully running a 600-bed full-to-capacity night shelter for farmers putting up at the Singhu border, NGO Khalsa Aid India will now open its second one at the Tikri border on Monday.

The ''semi-permanent'' shelter, which is claimed to be bigger and better than the one at Singhu, will accommodate over 800 people. It is equipped with mattresses, blankets and pillows.

''German technology was used to make this night shelter. It is semi-permanent and much bigger than the one we have in Singhu presently. Also, for the convenience of farmers who would stay here we have built 100 bathrooms and toilets here,'' Amarpreet Singh, the director of Khalsa Aid Project (Asia Chapter), told PTI.

Increase in the number of protesters, severe cold and sporadic rains have led to an immediate need of night shelters for protesting farmers, especially the elderly. According to Singh, one of the major reasons for building a night shelter now was to protect farmers whose personal belongings, including ration and clothes, were destroyed amid the rains this week.

''People who were putting up at the trolleys complained how water got into their vehicles. There was water-logging and many had to work real hard to prevent their belongings from getting soaked,'' he explained.

Even the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), which has been providing many essential services to the farmers, is now running several buses as ''mobile shelters'' at various border points in Delhi and the neighbouring states. Beside night-shelters, Khalsa Aid India, registered separately as a charitable trust in 2013, is also operating two 'Kisan Malls' which provide items of daily use, such as inner wears, thermals, toothbrush and sanitary pads for those in need -- all free of cost.

Camping from day one of the farmers protest at the two major protest sites of Singhu and Tikri, they are now providing services to farmers protesting at other sites too. Its volunteers, for instance, recently distributed winter wear and thermals to farmers camping at the Shahjahanpur border.