CR repurposes defunct godown to store, supply oxygen to rail hospital

Representation pic/Getty Images

Old and dilapidated buildings in closed railway premises are now coming in handy amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A small part of the old printing press godown is all set to become an oxygen manifold room to maintain the supply of the crucial gas to Byculla railway hospital.

"A very small portion of an old godown in the premise will now be used as a manifold to maintain a steady supply of oxygen. A cylinder manifold room is a group of large gas cylinders, commonly used to supply gases via a pipeline to a building such as a hospital. Cylinders are often arranged into two groups; a primary and secondary group," a senior official said.

The location of the defunct printing site at Byculla close to the hospital has been selected because ideally, gas manifolds should be in an area separate from the main building. It should not be exposed to the environment and should be well ventilated. The defunct print press was the best available spot.

Central Railway's (CR) chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar confirmed the development.

The Byculla hospital has been shouldering the responsibility of non-COVID OPD and indoor elective and emergency tertiary level cases of not only CR and Western Railway but also from other zones. Till May end, the hospital, officially named Bharat Ratna Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Memorial Hospital, has handled more than 1,000 non-COVID patients of the WR. Since April, the hospital's 24x7 Casualty ward has handled 2,303 cases.

Byculla hospital is also running new additional COVID-related services such as the OPD, Casualty, Quarantine Centres, Triage Ward, ambulance service and a testing facility.

COVID-19 testing was started by empanelling labs. Regular tests are carried out on indoor patients of dialysis, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, on preoperative surgical cases, pregnant women and contacts of positive cases.

The hospital also helped establish tie-ups for a testing facility at Divisional Railway Hospitals in Kalyan and Pune and helped Jagjivan Ram Hospital of the WR, a dedicated COVID centre, to enter into a tie-up.

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