Anand Vihar railway station makes space for isolation coaches, no train services from Monday

Anand Vihar railway station, a hub for east-bound long-distance trains originating from the national capital, will not see any train service operate from Monday onwards as all platforms will be reserved for the deployment of COVID 19 isolation coaches.

New Delhi:The Indian Railways will not run any trains from Anand Vihar station from Monday and all the platforms will be used to deploy isolation coaches for coronavirus patients that the Centre will provide to the Delhi government to overcome the shortage of hospital beds, sources said Sunday.

All five trains which operated from the station will now be run from Old Delhi railway station till further orders, the sources said.

Home Minister Amit Shah earlier Sunday said the Centre would provide 500 railway coaches to Delhi in view of the shortage of beds.

The Railways has already deployed 54 such coaches at the maintenance depot of the Shakurbasti station and is planning to deploy the remaining coaches on the seven platforms of Anand Vihar station, sources said.

There were five trains from Anand Vihar station operated by the Northern Railways. The services were to Motihari, Raxaul, Muzaffarpur in Bihar and two trains to Ghazipur city in Uttar Pradesh.

The Railways has deployed 204 isolation coaches in four states so far.

Delhi recorded 2,224 fresh coronavirus cases on Sunday in the highest single-day spike in the national capital, taking the infection tally to over 41,000, and the death toll mounted to 1,327, authorities said.

This is the third successive day when over 2,000 cases have been reported in a day in Delhi. The previous highest spike in fresh cases -- 2,137 -- was recorded on June 12.

Fifty-six fatalities have been recorded in the last 24 hours, the Delhi health department said in a bulletin on Sunday.

The number of coronavirus cases in Delhi is the third-highest in the country after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

PTI