What India is doing with existing real estate & infrastructure to combat COVID

In light of the widespread impact and ramifications of the Corona virus wide, nations have had to improvise the ways and means of tending to the affected population. In India with the prudent decisions of the Government, we have curtailed community spread of the disease thus far, but nonetheless we are trying to stay ahead of the curve and being prepared.

The nationwide lockdown is now in its fourth week and has been extended to 3 May. While we did see a rise in the number of reported cases in the last week, India overall has been able to deal with the pandemic in a more disciplined manner. This remarkably has resulted in, as per a recent government notification, construction activities being allowed to be carried out in a controlled manner. Roads, irrigation & renewable energy projects, buildings and industrial projects including MSMEs, in rural areas have been sanctioned for construction. Projects which were under construction will be permitted to continue, provided workers on-site are available and are not required to be brought from outside.

In light of the vast population of the country and how COVID has disrupted other nations, our Government has been extremely proactive in thinking and planning ahead to combat the virus spread. Some of these have been commendable out-of-the box ideas. In addition to setting up hospitals within quick turnaround time, there have been innovative concepts like converting existing infrastructure into hospitals or wards where the affected can be taken care of.

Gujarat is a great example, where isolation facilities have been put together for 3000 patients, in order to deal with the outbreak in cities like Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Rajkot and Vadodara. These facilities are fully equipped with ICU, dedicated isolation facilities and are capable of scaling up capacity in case (God forbid) required. The state government has also directed each of the remaining 29 districts to be ready with 100 beds, exclusively for virus infected cases.

Delhi, Gurugram and Mumbai too, have responded to the situation where five- star hotel facilities have offered or been requested to allocate rooms to be used as quarantine facilities for international travelers, who are in India. These rooms are also being utilized for accommodating health care workers. In Delhi, government schools have been converted to house migrant workers as night shelters as they are caught in between their work and home states because of the ‘national lockdown’

Indian Railways is modifying 20,000 rail coaches in an endeavor to provide relief to the afflicted. These coaches will be able to accommodate 3.2 lakh isolation beds, in case the need arises in future. This will allow flexibility and mobility to scale up in case required, within no time. And once we are over with this, they can be repurposed back to passenger movement. Currently, the Railways is looking at only revamping non-AC ICF sleeper coaches to be utilised for conversion into quarantine/isolation coaches. Much to its credit, it has also undertaken the initiative to distribute food to the destitute, at railway stations around the nation.

Waste management is another aspect that needs to be focussed on as it can exacerbate the impact of the virus. Untreated sewage wastewater can worsen an already dangerous situation. Again, the government has taken the following steps to manage waste appropriately in this time of the lockdown –

· The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has stated that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds for COVID-19 is entitled for CSR activities. Funds are permitted to be spent on activities related to promotion of healthcare, including preventive health care and sanitation and disaster management.

· The Technology Development Board will encourage innovation for fighting COVID-19 by providing financial assistance like soft loans to promising technologically innovative solutions.

· A ‘S&T Core-team on COVID-19’ of experts has been set up to reach out to clusters, helping identify problems that need urgent, immediate solutions. It will work with academia and industry to solve these problems at the earliest.

· A committee co-chaired by Dr. Vinod Paul, Member NITI-Aayog and Professor K. Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India was established to co-ordinate work between science agencies, scientists and regulatory bodies and take swift decisions.

The Government has undertaken some exceptional steps to deal with this extraordinary situation. The pandemic has already taught us to put collective welfare over individual well-being. As a society, as a people, we have relearned essential human values. Hopefully, we all, not just as a nation but as mankind will be able to sail through this devastatingly gut-wrenching setback with valuable lessons learnt. The world order as we know it will forever be changed but it will surely enable us to reach and conquer greater frontiers.