In their tryst with the dreaded virus, all the three divisions of the North Central Railways (NCR) have come out with their prototype of the what they call as ‘coronavirus sanitisation tunnel’. The three different prototype of the tunnels works on the fundamental principle of spraying the user with tiny droplets of chemical which would in turn disinfect the person travelling in the coach.
“In this unprecedented fight against novel coronavirus many new ideas and innovations are being developed and evaluated, spray or mist based sanitization tunnel is such an area wherein prototypes have been developed by various workshops of NCR and the same has to be evaluated on merits and demerits”, said chief public relation officer (CPRO), NCR, Ajeet Kumar Singh.
The three different variants of the sanitisation tunnel prototypes have been developed at coaching depot Prayagraj, electric loco shed Kanpur and electric loco shed Jhansi. One has to understand that these are just prototypes and under trial and shall be implemented at location with large public concentration once all merit and demerits are fully examined by the competent authority and the final design is cleared by authorised experts in this field, he added.
Talking of the basics behind these tunnel, the CPRO said that this is basically compressed chemical which is sprayed on the users and because of the highest pressure and small outlet, it forms mist but is quite effective when it comes to disinfecting a person. Some of these prototypes would be handed over to the Railways Board which would in turn discuss its functioning with the ministry of health as this targets the future plan of safe train journey.
Singh further added, one has to see that these tunnels do not have any adverse effect on human body as the same could be positioned at all the entry points of the station premises. Moreover, the technicalities like what should be the duration of a person to pass through the tunnel, that would decide the length of the tunnel or how many persons can pass at a time etc will have to be looked into. “But whatever be the case, the efforts of all the three workshops is commendable as all the three prototype are serving the purpose”, said the CPRO.