Delhi: Manish Sisodia tells railways to control heat inside isolation coaches

NEW DELHI: Inspecting the Covid-19 isolation coaches at Shakurbasti station on Wednesday, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia asked Northern Railway to sort out the heat problem as these facilities are non-airconditioned.
“This is a good concept and will certainly help us. But in these temperatures, it may get extremely warm inside the coaches. It will be difficult for medical staff in PPE kits to work in such a condition, but we hope they find a solution,” Sisodia said.
Rajiv Chaudhary, general manager (NCR), said they had identified two to three materials for insulating these coaches.“Our isolation prototypes were non-AC and we may have to find a new prototype if airconditioners need to be accommodated. For these coaches, we will look at insulation and the temperature condition will improve,” he added.
The railways is readying 503 isolation coaches at nine stations in the capital to accommodate Covid-19 patients. Out of these, 317 can already house patients, Northern Railway said. In a webinar, Chaudhary said only patients with mild and very mild symptoms and preferably without any respiratory or comorbidity issue would be accommodated in these coaches. The railways is following the Union health ministry’s guidelines issued on May 6, he added. While 267 coaches are stationed at Anand Vihar station and 50 at Shakurbasti, another 50 coaches will be placed at Sarai Rohilla, 21 at Safdarjung, 30 at Adarsh Nagar, 13 at Delhi Shahdara, 33 at Delhi Cantt, 26 at Patel Nagar and 13 at Tughlaqabad.