The Northern Railways has manufactured 17,000 coveralls for medical professionals till Sunday, producing a record number of 2,000 in a single day, a senior official said.
Last month, the Railways altogether prepared 41,000 such units, 12,000 of them contributed by the NR, said Arun Arora, Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer, Northern Railway.
“Further, during the first two days of May, the Indian Railways produced 6,000 coveralls and our contribution is 3,000 in it,” the NR representative said.
It is expected that this month, Northern Railways workshops will be able to churn out more than 30,000 coveralls for immediate supply to doctors and paramedics who are the frontline fighters against COVID-19.
Arora said the cost of coveralls prepared by the NR is Rs 447 per unit as compared to prevailing market price of Rs 805.
The railways has set a target of one lakh such PPEs coveralls to be prepared by May 31.
Samples of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) made at a Northern Railways workshop have been cleared by the DRDO for its ability to block blood or body fluid.
The test was conducted to check the resistance of the bio-protective covering material to penetration of blood or body fluid.
These coveralls will be worn by doctors in railway hospitals while treating COVID-19 patients, the Northern Railways said.
There is an acute shortage of PPEs for medical professionals in the country who are treating coronavirus patients.
