Suhail Bhat
Srinagar, Jan 27: Over 300 disinfection tunnels, which were installed at various hospitals and Government departments to contain the spread of infection during the first wave of COVID 19, are now defunct, wasting the money invested in their creation.
After being used in China and other nations in the first wave, these tunnels were introduced in the Valley. The tunnels were employed to contain the spread of infection by spraying chemicals like Quaternary Ammonium Chloride (QAC) on everyone who went through them.
The tunnels were originally erected at all of the Valley’s Government hospitals, then at other significant Government departments with high footfalls, with the building and installation being handled by the various municipalities.
The first such tunnel was launched and erected by the Srinagar Municipal Corporation at the Chest Diseases Hospital in Srinagar in April 2020. Likewise, the decontamination and sanitation tunnels were also erected in hospitals and other Government departments in the other municipalities, totalling roughly 300 tunnels in 40 municipalities across the Valley, each costing around Rs 50,000 to Rs. 60,000.
According to an official, the tunnels were completed in the first wave and remained functional in the initial part of the second wave. “They are yet to be operationalized in the third wave since authorities did not find them effective,” he said.
He said that the contractors who were hired to build these tunnels are the ones who are the most affected because they have yet to be paid. “They were hired as an emergency measure, but the government has yet to pay them. They have been going to offices for a long time, “he said, adding that these tunnels are starting to rust at the respective district offices.
Experts, on the other hand, believe that the infection tunnels were set up while the mode of transmission was unknown and that once it was discovered that COVID-19 transmits through the air, the tunnels were useless in preventing the spread of virus. “You can’t blame them because they had no idea what the virus was or how it spread. The money spent on their production was a waste, yet human lives were essential at the time, “he said.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel