In a statement, the Railways said that as suggested by the medical community, washing hands frequently can prevent spread of COVID-19 but the hand washing arrangements present at working places where large numbers of people work itself are a potential threat for virus transmission. To counter this, a novel method was devised as instructed by Arvind Malkhede, Divisional Railway Manager.
The hands free hand sanitising arrangement helps in sanitising the hands without physically touching the water tap and sanitiser dispenser, thereby making it safe for usage at common places.
The statement said, “This system will also help in saving a lot of water. A water tank of 500/1000 litres capacity is mounted on a fabricated stand along with a wash basin. A gravity water tap is connected to this water tank. A hand sanitizer dispenser is fixed adjacent to the tap. Both the tap and hand sanitiser dispenser are mechanically linked to peddles fixed at the bottom portion of the stand. Both the tap and sanitizer can be independently operated by pressing pedals. Releasing the pedal will automatically shut off the supply of water and sanitiser liquid.”
These systems have been installed at Carriage and Wagon depot, Crew Lobby, Railway Protection Force office in Hubballi. 100 more are planned for installation at various offices in Hubballi Division.
Other than this, as earlier announced, like across all divisions in the country, the South Western Railways are converting train coaches into a total of 312 Isolation wards to provide facilities to combat the pandemic.
The coaches are being prepared as per the prototype decided following consultations between the Armed Forces Medical Services, Medical Department of Railways and Ayushman Bharath.
The coaches will be equipped with basic facilities needed as per medical guidelines. This will include charging points of mobiles and laptops, mosquito nets with space for paramedics.
Source: TheNewsMinute.com