Railways plans to make 1000 low-cost PPE per day after DRDO nod

The Railways will deploy around 17 of its workshops to begin production of 1,000 such protective overalls per day. Plans are also afoot to supply 50% of these PPEs to other medical professionals across the country, the ministry said.

The Indian Railways plans to manufacture 1,000 low-lost personal protective equipment (PPE) such as overalls for doctors and paramedics per day after its samples made by Northern Railways were tested and approved by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) authorities.

The country is facing a massive shortage of PPE for doctors treating Covid-19 patients. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO)

The national carrier will deploy around 17 of its workshops to begin production of 1,000 such protective overalls per day. Plans are also afoot to supply 50% of these PPEs to other medical professionals across the country, the ministry said.

“Indian Railways has taken up the in-house production of PPE type overall on a mission mode. A DRDO laboratory recently cleared overalls produced by its Jagadhari workshop. Approved design and material will be used for making this protective overall by other workshops under different zones,” the ministry said on Tuesday.

The material for the overall will be procured from Punjab, as it is located near the Jagadhari workshop in Haryana.

The Indian Railways is aiming to produce three sets of overalls per sewing machine per hour for as many days as required in its production units and workshops, the ministry said.

HLL, the government’s nodal agency for medical procurement, had pointed out an acute shortfall of supply of equipment due to high demand and logistical constraints since the ongoing 21-day nationwide lockdown was enforced on March 25 to contain the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak. The state-run company had also written to the Indian Railways citing the supply crunch.

The country is facing a massive shortage of PPE for doctors treating Covid-19 patients. The Delhi government had last week also accused the Centre of not responding to the shortage of the PPE in the national capital.