COVID-19: NFR plans to produce 2,000 PPEs in April

Guwahati, Apr 16 () The Northeast Frontier Railway(NFR) has planned to make 2,000 sets of personal protectiveequipment this month to meet the growing demand for suchcoveralls for healthcare personnel who get directly exposed tothe COVID-19 disease when working amongst infected patients,an official said on Thursday.

The NFR has already made about 150 sets of PPEs in itsworkshops as per the specification provided, he said.

Prototypes of PPEs have been made at the NewBongaigaon and Dibrugarh workshops of the NFR with the help ofpresently available infrastructure,CPRO Subhanan Chanda said.

These prototypes have been tested by medicalprofessionals of the railway, he said.

"Nearly 150 sets of PPEs have already been made in thelast 2-3 days, and NFR plans to make 2,000 such sets, out of30,000 targeted by Indian Railways," the CPRO said.

The prototype coveralls have been approved with thehighest grade at the authorised DRDO laboratory at Gwalior, headded.

The Railways' production facilities, workshops andfield units across the country have also begun manufacturingof the PPEs to meet the target of 30,000 such coveralls inApril, and it plans to make 1 lakh more in May.

Chanda said the Railways' doctors, nurses and healthworkers are working amongst infected patients and they arevulnerable to the infection.

He said they need to be provided with a special kindof impervious coveralls and these are required in very largenumbers as each can be used only once, he said.

Meanwhile, Indian Railways has converted more than5,000 of its passenger coaches into quarantine and isolationfacilities within a very short period, he added. ESBBDC BDC