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The Army’s rolling stock — railway cargo wagons usually tasked with moving weapons and stores — has been made available for transporting oxygen-laden trucks. The IAF is on standby. Sources told ET that defence minister Rajnath Singh has asked the Army to depute senior officers to reach out to the states and offer help.
The minister has been in touch with top officials, including Army chief Gen MM Naravane and defence secretary Ajay Kumar, to coordinate a response from the forces and offer whatever excess capacity is available to assist civil authorities. This could range from setting up temporary healthcare facilities to transporting supplies to deploying medical staff.
Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren had recently written to the PM requesting that central para military forces and military hospitals in the state be allowed to help in the “treatment and management” of Covid-19 patients.
“There have been regular meetings on how the armed forces can assist civilian authorities and all requests are being addressed at the fastest pace possible. The Army has been asked to meet all chief ministers as well,” officials told ET.
Last year, the armed forces had created a network of Covid isolation centres as well as field hospitals for Indians returning from abroad amid the disease outbreak.
Meanwhile, the Defence Research and Development Organisation has reopened its hospital in Delhi with 250 intensive-care beds and will scale it up to 1,000 over the week. A similar facility is coming up at Lucknow as well.
In addition, DRDO is also making available a new oxygen delivery system to the civilian authorities. Originally developed for soldiers posted at extreme high altitudes on the China and Pakistan borders, the Spo2 supplemental oxygen delivery system has been made from a spinoff technology from the Tejas fighter jet programme.
The Army has already allocated its rail transportation resources for delivery of oxygen throughout the country, senior officers said. Based on a request from Indian Railways, the Army has released 32 wagons for the delivery of oxygen-laden trucks to Vishakapatnam and will positively consider more such requests as well, officials said.
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