Rail Coach Factory (RCF) Kapurthala of the Indian Railways has manufactured a low-cost ventilator prototype named ‘Jeevan’ for COVID-19 patients in a record week’s time. The manufacture of ‘Jeevan’ was announced by the Minister for Railways Shri. Piyush Goyal on social media.
The Railway Minister further said that having an original design, ‘Jeevan’ can be utilised as an emergency ventilator and after testing. He siad that this timely creation will support the nation’s battle against the pandemic.
The prototype ‘Jeevan’ has an original design and will cost almost a fraction of what the regular ventilators cost. It can be utilized as an emergency ventilator and its production is easy, which can be done with the smaller size components or locally sourced components. The body of the ventilator has been made from the train coach components.
The heart of the ventilator is the compressed air container and it has a microprocessor based controller: A valve has been installed in the system for regulating the breathing of the patient, whether old or young. The operations of the device will be silent, says the Railway press release.
Engineers, plant designers and a group of medical professionals from RCF hospital are behind the development of this device. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will conduct the final testing of the prototype. The test and results by ICMR will affirm whether the ventilator will be put for production across the Indian Railways network.
