10 day deadline for conversion of rail coaches

Perambur Carriage Works, which has been entrusted with the task of converting 110 of the 473 coaches in Southern Railway (SR) into isolation coaches, has managed to complete 14 coaches since Monday. “We have been asked to complete 110 coaches in 10 days. Works are being done with available materials. Today is the third day. We have completed 14 so far. We have placed orders for raw materials like taps and nets,” said G Venkatachalapathy, deputy chief mechanical engineer of Perambur Carriage Workshop.

Workshops have also done away with the plan to provide 230v sockets in the bays. “It will require removing the covers and reworking the entire electrical lining of the coaches. It will consume time. So, we were instructed to stick to the existing 110v sockets,” he said. The railway board has instructed the zones to convert one toilet instead of two into bathrooms