With the hospitals in Karnataka running out of beds to treat Covid-19 patients, the South Western Railway (SWR) is ready to provide nearly 270 of its coaches to accommodate 4,300 patients if the State government makes a proposal.
A highly placed source in SWR informed DH that during the first wave, SWR had readied 320 coaches. Each coach could accommodate 16 patients. However, there arose no need to utilise these facilities last year. And due to lack of demand, nearly 30 per cent of the modified coaches were converted back as normal coaches for passenger trains.
“So far we have not received any request from the state government to provide them coaches,” said the officer and added that the SWR is ready to provide them with the isolation wards within days of request.
While the SWR provides the coaches, it is the state government that has to fix the medical equipment at these coaches. Each of the three divisions (Bengaluru, Hubballi and Mysuru) have around 70-80 coaches readied and can be pressed into service when required, said the officer.
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