Non-AC coaches of Railways have been shifted to Covid Care Center, this arrangement has been made for cooling.

New delhi date. Saturday, June 20, 2020

Railways have turned train coaches into isolation wards in view of increasing cases of coronary infection and shortage of hospital beds. Indian Railways has designed 5,231 coaches as additional infrastructure to quarantine Corona patients. All these coaches will be deployed as per the request of the state government as required.

The railways will be responsible for the care of the railway coaches shifted to the Covid Care Center while the medical facility will be made available by the state governments. Discussions were held with the Policy Commission and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare before turning the railway coaches into covid care centers.

"According to the Policy Commission and the Ministry of Health, non-AC coaches are more suitable for control of Covid-19 than AC coaches," Railways said.

Railway system to keep the coaches cool

The railway is adopting new methods like 'bubble wraps' in addition to heat-retaining paints and bamboo mats to keep the railway coaches rotated in the Covid Care Center cool. The coaches are covered with a sheet to keep them cool from the inside, the railways said. Wrapping bubble wrap films on the cans is expected to keep the temperature inside the cans as low as one degree Celsius.

The railways used heat reflective paint on the roof of the isolated coach and with it the temperature inside the compartment was recorded as low as 2.2 degrees Celsius during the test. A cooler that can be moved from one place to another inside the coach was also experimented with, Railways said. It helped to reduce the temperature inside the can by three degrees Celsius. Keeping the cans cool in this way does not cause patients to be bothered by the heat.

According to a statement from the Railways, the use of air-conditioned (AC) coaches is a risk factor for the spread of the disease.