Two builders offer vacant residential towers for quarantine facilities

The National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO), a builders’ association, has offered 500 beds at two of its housing complexes for quarantining suspected

The National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO), a builders’ association, has offered 500 beds at two of its housing complexes for quarantining suspected Covid-19 patients even as the number of positive cases is increasing in the Gautam Budh Nagar district by the day.

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The Gautam Budh Nagar administration had requested builders, hotel owners, private hospitals and other stakeholders to provide buildings, which can be converted into quarantine facilities as the requirement for these to hold suspected patients is on the rise.

Supertech Limited has given a tower in Supertech Upcountry, Sector 17A, Yamuna Expressway area, with a capacity to accommodate 400 beds for setting up a quarantine facility. The Antriksh Group has given Antriksh Golf View in Sector 78, Noida, which has a capacity to accommodate 100 people. The two residential towers are newly built and vacant.

“The outbreak and spread of Covid-19 infection has been unprecedented and it is affecting all segments of society. We as a country are at stage 2 (local transmission) of this disease, and it is necessary to keep Covid-19 suspected persons in quarantine. To help the government contain the spread, we have decided to offer 500 beds at two of our residential towers,” RK Aora, president,Uttar Pradesh chapter of NAREDCO, said.

The NAREDCO said more builders will come forward to offer their respective complexes for quarantine facilities.

“We have requested other builders to identify complexes that can be converted into quarantine facilities. And the number of beds can be increased in the days to come. Apart from this, builders are offering essential services including food and medicine at our construction sites to labourers are currently out of work,” Arora said.

Meanwhile, the administration has converted India’s Formula One racing track the Buddh International Circuit, into a quarantine facility.

“We have cleaned toilets and mopped the entire Sports City at Yamuna Expressway, which is part of racing track campus. It can accommodate 5,000 beds,” Shailendra Bhatia, officer on special duty, Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority, the caretaker agency of this facility, said.

The district administration has converted at least 28 buildings into quarantine facilities with a total bed strength of 7,000.