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Our Correspondent
Kohima, June 4 (EMN): Two empty halls – badminton court and multi-purpose -- at Indira Gandhi (IG) Stadium in Kohima were converted to facility quarantine centre within a week’s time to accommodate 500 returnees from outside the state.
It was found out during the spot verification on Thursday that the centre appeared to be more or less ready, except for some final renovation works like installation of public address system and water pipeline repairing.
The halls have been divided into cubicles, each cubicle containing five or more beds. Besides that, beds have also put up on gallery and extra rooms inside the halls. Each person/ bed is provided with (new) two buckets, a mug, soaps (washing and bathing), toothpaste, bed-sheet, pillow, blanket, spoon, cup, toilet roll, and a plastic chair. Charging points for mobile phones and other electronic gadgets have also been set up in all the cubicles and at various corners of the gallery.
Convener of Core Committee, Kohima and additional secretary of Tourism, Martha R Ritse, said that the total capacity at IG quarantine centre is 500. The multipurpose hall is for female returnees while the badminton court will accommodate male returnees.
The facility also has a separate block for medical team with control room, which will be manned by them. Further, the centre has provision for accommodation of about 20 security personnel, she added.
The convener lauded her team for the “fantastic job” in a very short time, working almost 24x7 and getting everything done. On Thursday, the team did some final touches; the centre will be handed over to the district task force, she added.
Member Logistic Committee and Deputy Secretary and Joint Chief Executive Officer of Kohima Smart City Development Ltd., Avelu Ruho, said that the preparation for the facility started from scratch on May 27, after Chief Minister’s visit on the same day.
A total of 170 beds for female with 16 toilets, and a total of 330 beds with 25 toilets for male have been kept ready. She added that 21 toilets were constructed from scratch within a week’s time, which is now ready. She lauded various teams for their tireless efforts.
Earlier, 470 beds were prepared but the team had cleaned up additional rooms and put in more beds, she added. The officer also said that the space between beds is about three-and-a-half feet.
In Kohima, there are four quarantine centres, including Administrative Training Institute (ATI), K. Badze, Meriema, and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) that are already running. Once these facility quarantine centres are filled, returnees will start coming here, Ruho said.
Giving further detail on beds, she informed that there are 1360 beds at K Badze, 10 at ATI, 501 at Meriema, and 502 at JNV, besides 500 beds at IG.
Engineer K Nakhro, Team Leader of Repair and Renovation and Superintending Engineer of Housing, informed that facility quarantine at JNV was activated on Wednesday night because of the urgent need. About 37 inmates are currently at the centre (as on Thursday afternoon), he added.
He said that lot of people from various departments were involved in setting up the quarantine centre in a short period of time, working day in and day out. To name a few, Public Works Department (Housing), Public Health Engineering Department, Power Department, and Logistics besides others, were involved in putting up this quarantine facility, he added.