Chennai, Mar 30 (IANS): Three production units belonging to Southern Railways have been assigned the task of converting one train coach as an isolation ward for Coronavirus patients, said an official.

According to the official, Perambur Loco Works, Perambur Carriage Works both located here and the Golden Rock Workshop in Trichy will be converting one coach each as prototype for Coronavirus ward.

Further plans for converting coaches as medical ward will be taken based on the instructions from the Indian Railway Board, an official not wanting to be quoted told IANS.

According to the official, the work has begun and is expected to be completed by Thursday.

The modifications include converting the Indian style toilets into a bathing room with hand shower, bucket, mug, soap and liquid dispenser.

All the middle berths in the coaches and the ladders to climb on to middle and upper berths would be removed for easier movement.

The official said there will be extra bottle holder and there will be 230V sockets in each cabin.

There will be plastic curtain for each cabin as a measure of isolation.

The partition on the end side next to main doorway will be removed on each end.

According to an official, Indian Railways have already coaches with fully equipped operation theatre which are used to treat the injured in train accidents.