The morale of the Indian armed forces is “very high” and the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Ladakh last week and his address to troops “have raised the morale of all the forces at the border,” said S.S. Deswal, Director General Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) on Sunday amid ongoing standoff with China on the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
“The complete national leadership, political leadership and the forces and jawans… they are dedicated to the nation. They are dedicated to border security and the morale of all forces, be it the Indian Army, Air Force or ITBP, is very high,” Mr. Deswal told the media on the sidelines of an event to inaugurate a 10,000-bed COVID care centre. The facility was inaugurated by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal for which ITBP is the nodal agency for operation.
Mr. Deswal stated that personnel of the armed forces have sacrificed their lives in the line of duty in the past and they are ready to do so in the future as well. ITBP which is tasked with guarding the LAC along with the Army has inducted an additional 30 companies, around 3,000 personnel to augment numbers during the ongoing standoff at several locations in Eastern Ladakh.
1000 bed COVID-19 hospital by DRDO in 12 days
Separately, a 1000 bed COVID hospital which includes250 bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU)designed and constructed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with Tata Trust was inaugurated by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah.
“Visited the 1,000 bed Sardar Patel Covid Hospital, which has 250 ICU beds, along withRajnath Singh. DRDO built it in record time of 12 days with assistance from Home Ministry, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), armed forces and Tata Trust. Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) team will run it and DRDO will maintain,” Mr. Shah said on Twitter later.
The facility was engineered using modular rapid fabrication technique based on octanorm cubicles and there is internal negative pressure gradient for safe contagion containment a DRDO brochure said. Other unique features of the facility include medical oxygen support for all 1000 beds, robot medical assistants for non-contact patient interaction, Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) suits for all medial professionals and on-site sewage treatment plant as per in-house design including final discharge sterilisation among others, DRDO stated.
The facility will be manned by about 600 medical personnel under AFMSand COVID-19 patients referred by the district administration will be admitted and treated free of cost at the facility and critical cases will be referred to AIIMS.
The brochure stated that DRDO undertook the design, development and operationalisation of the facility on a war footing and with the permission of IAF, land situated near the New Delhi Domestic Terminal T1 was identified and construction work by DRDO commenced on June 23.
(With inputs from PTI)
