2,500 coaches in trains converted into isolation wards with 40,000 beds

nNEWDELHI: The Indian railways on Monday said that it has converted 2,500 train coaches into special isolation wards with 40,000 beds as part of the government’s efforts to create additional medical infrastructure to deal with any major spike in the coronavirus (Covid-19) cases.

India plans to ramp up testing for the disease. This is likely to lead to a jump in the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases and an increase in the demand for more isolation wards and beds.

Officials said the first 2, 500 of the total 20,000 coaches the railways plans to modify were converted within a week, which works out to an average conversion rate of 375 daily. The railways plans to modify 5,000 coaches with 80,000 beds in the first phase of the project. The remaining 15,000 coaches will be converted into isolation wards. The 20,000 coaches would have a capacity for 3.2 lakh beds.

Officials said the conversion work was being carried out at 133 locations across the country. The railway board has suggested that these isolation coaches be used in rural areas that have little access to hospitals.

“In times of lockdown, when manpower resources are limited and have to be rationalised and rotated, different zones of railways have done an almost impossible task of so many conversions in such a small span of time,’’ a railway ministry statement said, referring to the 21-day lockdown imposed to halt the spread of the pandemic.

The ministry underlined that the coaches are being prepared “only as a contingency”.