Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) helping States to fight COVID pandemic

GUWAHATI: Anshul Gupta, General Manager, Northeast Frontier Railway interacted with media persons through a virtual press conference from Maligaon here on Thursday.

During the interaction, General Manager briefed the media persons about the initiatives being taken by Northeast Frontier Railway and Indian Railways as a whole during these challenging times of the COVID pandemic.

It may be mentioned here that, in order to contain the spread of COVID-19, Northeast Frontier Railway is making all out effort to supplement the health care efforts of State governments. The steps include equipping the existing railway hospitals for treatment of COVID patients, installing oxygen plants in hospitals to meet the COVID-19 needs, organizing vaccination drives for its employees etc. The NFR has provided facilities for treatment of COVID positive patients in 6 of its Railway Hospitals with a total of 354 beds. Each of these special wards has all the basic healthcare facilities required for the treatment of COVID positive patients and more than 1250 patients have been treated in these hospitals since April, 2021. Seven oxygen plants are also planned to be installed in various hospitals of NFR. 19 vaccination centers are in operation all over NFR. Nearly 95 per cent RPF and 72 per cent health care workers of NFR received their 2nd dose already. About 64 per cent of the serving employees also got their 1st dose.

"Indian Railway is running Oxygen Express trains to bring relief to needy States by creating a Green Corridor for faster movement of this life saving consignment. First Oxygen Express was run between Mumbai to Vizag on 19th April 2021. 440 Oxygen Express trains have already completed their delivery in various states by carrying 31704 MT of LMO till yesterday. Already 7 Oxygen Express trains have also arrived in Assam with 560 MT of LMO," said Gupta.

During this pandemic, to keep the economy moving and to meet the demand of essential and other commodities, highest ever freight loading of 114.82 MT was done in May 2021 by Indian railways despite constraints. This is 9.7% more than previous best of 104.65 MT in May 2019. Northeast Frontier Railway also loaded 1.480 MT this year till May as compared to 0.802 MT done in corresponding period of last year. This is an increase of 84.5%, stated a release.

Also Read: Northeast Frontier Railways will Operate Four Extra Special Trains

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