Piyush Goyal, minister of Railways and Commerce and Industry, Government of India took to Twitter to announce that Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, a coach manufacturing unit of Indian Railways, has manufactured a low-cost ventilator prototype ‘Jeevan’ for Covid-19 patients.
He says, “Having an original design, Jeevan can be utilised as an emergency ventilator and after testing, it will support the nation’s battle against the pandemic.
“Jeevan can be utilised as an emergency ventilator and its production is easy, which can be done with the smaller size components or locally sourced components. The body of the ventilator has been made from the train coach components.” The cost of this device will be a fraction of what the regular ventilators cost.
A number of professionals are behind the development of this device – engineers, plant designers and a medical team from RCF hospital.
The final testing of this prototype will be conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research. Depending on the results, the ventilator will be put for production across the Indian Railways Network.
Indian Railways is also gearing up facilities to produce 1,000 personal protective equipment garments for railway doctors and paramedics every day.
Goyal says, “Through this initiative, the railway doctors and paramedics will be fully protected as they tackle coronavirus on the front line.”
