Seventy-one isolation coaches were available in Tiruchi Railway Division to move them where they may be required to accommodate COVID 19 patients.
The coaches will be moved based on instructions from the Southern Railway headquarters upon receipt of request from the State government. The coaches were kept at Villupuram, Thanjavur, Sillakudi and Ariyalur with modifications and facilities created in each one of them.
Several sleeper class coaches and general compartments which were being deployed in express and passenger trains were converted into isolation coaches to accommodate those requiring quarantine facilities. These compartments were converted into isolation coaches at various places including at Golden Rock Railway Workshop in Tiruchi as well as in Tiruchi Division last year when the viral infection began to spread.
The middle berths have been removed from the sleeper class coaches while converting them as isolation compartments. Each isolation coach could accommodate eight to 16 persons.
Each coach has nine bays with the first bay meant for para-medical staff and for keeping oxygen cylinders and medicines. Each bay has been provided with three types of dustbins with the windows covered with mosquito nets. Coat hooks and bottle holders have also been provided inside the coaches in which liquid soap dispensers were provided in the toilets and wash basins. One toilet had been converted into a bathroom and provided with a stool and a bucket. The place where the para-medical staff would be deployed would be covered with a nylon curtain. The isolation coaches have also been equipped with fire extinguishers.
The Golden Rock Railway Workshop which is engaged in periodic maintenance of broad gauge compartments and diesel locomotives had modified 111 sleeper class and general compartments into isolation coaches.
