In view of covid-19 surge, Kashmir’s leading philanthropic organisation, Athrout, has set up a 100-bed Covid facility in a record three days’ time. Athrout collaborated with the Srinagar administration, and converted the Haj house building into a spacious 100- bed plus Covid facility in Srinagar, almost in tune with a new practice of using religious places like mosques, temples and gurudwaras for rendering services to Corona-afflicted population.
This is for the first time in Kashmir that a charitable organisation has committed a decent Covid facility with 28 high- flow oxygen beds with a 15 to 20 LPM (litres per minute) capacity within the city radius. Besides 75 beds reliant on oxygen concentrators that supply 5 LPM to 10 LPM of oxygen are kept ready in as many as six halls of the building.
The Atrout has been a saviour of sorts in almost every natural and other calamities that has hit Kashmir in the last many years. Be it the earthquake, floods, political disturbances and now Covid, this voluntary group has brought solace during the worst times of crisis.
Like last year, it has pledged to fight Covid in a zone where the virus has proliferated manifold.
The team Athrout worked against time to set up a huge facility just within three days. “The deputy commissioner, Srinagar, Ajaz Asad sahib gave us tremendous leverage to work. He provided the best support that one could imagine. This could not have happened without him,” added Nadvi, while inspecting one of the halls that had dozens of machines attached to beds. “He (DC) was extremely positive in his intent from the day we met at his office on Saturday,” he said.
On Sunday, when Athrout started work on the project, chairman Nadvi split his team into two groups. One a technical team headed by Khan and another by Abdul Hamid Bhat, a respected businessman and environmentalist, to manage resources. Within a span of three days, the two groups created a 100-bed facility.
