Indian Railway Makes Low-Cost Ventilator ‘Jeevan’, Awaiting Approval of ICMR

New Delhi : Indian Railways has designed a low cost ventilator that can be useful in saving thousands of lives amidst the spread of Coronavirus infection in the country. This cheap ventilator ‘Jeevan’ has been developed by Kapurthala railway coach factory and is awaiting approval from ICMR. According to a report, there is a severe shortage of life-saving ventilators in the country. At present, the maximum number of ventilators available in the country is 57 thousand. However, if the infection continues to spread, by May 15, 1 to 2 lakh ventilators may be needed in the country.

In a first, Railways Rail Coach Factory in Kapurthala has come out with a prototype of a ventilator, named Jeevan.

After final testing, the ventilator will aid the country’s fight against COVID-19 at a fraction of the cost of a regular ventilator. pic.twitter.com/vr3CzBeBpb

— Piyush Goyal Office (@PiyushGoyalOffc) April 5, 2020

Currently available ventilators cost between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 15 lakh. Ravinder Gupta, general manager of the railway coach factory, said, “The price of a ‘Jeevan’ ventilator would be around 10 thousand rupees without a compressor. Once we get the approval of ICMR, we have the resources to make 100 ventilators daily. Gupta said that it has been prepared by the RCF team. In this, a valve has been installed to operate the patient’s breathing. Its size can be changed according to the need. It moves without any sound. He said that we completed the final tests and now we have a fully operational emergency ventilator, which costs one third of the normal ventilator available in the market. Even if we put some indicators in it, it will still not cost more than 30 thousand rupees.