A unique COVID prevention kiosk was inaugurated today (03.08.2020) at KSR Bengaluru Railway Station by Bengaluru Division as a part of its continued fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. A. N. Krishna Reddy, Sr Divisional Commercial Manager, Bengaluru Division inaugurated the kiosk in presence of Ms. Kalyani Sethuraman, Additional Divisional Railway manager (Admin), Bengaluru Division.
The kiosk is in the form of a luggage disinfecting tunnel named ‘UV Baggage Bath’. It has been set up at the second Entry (Near entrance of PF Nos 5, 6,7 & 8, from where most of the scheduled special trains presently arrive and depart) in KSR Bengaluru Railway Station to ensure that passenger luggage will be completely sanitized before the passengers board the trains.
UV Baggage Bath is an enclosed chamber beamed by Ultra Violet (UV) light from all directions, through which passenger luggage will be passed through, to effectively disinfect all types of contaminations including virus, bacteria & other germs / pathogens that reside on all the outer surface of the baggage.
The luggage shall then be handed back to the passenger with a sticker certifying it as disinfected. Extra care has been taken to ensure the safety of the passengers with an extended tunnel on both ends and UV resistant flaps for the sides of the tunnel. The option can be exercised by passengers disembarking at the stations too.
It is uniquely designed for disinfecting baggage at railway stations, thereby helping to reduce indirect mode of COVID – 19 transmissions from the outer surfaces of travel bags to the human beings.
This optional luggage disinfection process shall be available free to the travelling public, during the trial phase of one month, after which nominal charges will be collected based on the cost of operation and patronage during this demonstration period of one month.
This proposal is being implemented at KSR Bengaluru and Yesvantpur Railway stations by M/s Optimurz Bio and IT Solutions, a Chennai Based new generation start-up, delivering Information Technology and Integrated Biotech solutions using cutting edge technologies, under NINFRIS (New & Innovative Non-Fare Revenue Ideas Scheme) by Railways.
It is planned to install similar machines at other major Railway stations also depending on the public response, once regular train service commences.