A round-the-clock free emergency medical care centre has begun to function at the Kumbakonam railway station where devotees from various parts of the country visit round-the-year.
Established on platform 1, the centre would be run and maintained by a private hospital to provide immediate medical attention and assistance to needy railway passengers free of cost.
Equipped with necessary paraphernalia and medicines, the centre would have a nurse and attender deployed round-the-clock with a doctor on call facility.
An ambulance is stationed outside the railway station to shift the patients requiring higher medical treatment to the hospital of their choice.
Kumbakonam is the third important railway station in Tiruchi Railway Division limits to have this facility after Tiruchi and Thanjavur Junctions, said a senior railway official.
Similar centres are expected to be commissioned at Mayiladuthurai, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam railway stations soon, the official said.
Major railway stations in the delta region would have the emergency centres once the facility is put into use at Mayiladuthurai, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam, the official added.
