L&T to offer quarantine facility to nearly 300,000 employees and workmen

Larsen and Toubro says it has come up with quarantine centres for its about 250,000 contract labourers and about 45,000 employees

As the country battles the deadly second surge of Covid-19, engineering and construction conglomerate Larsen and Toubro says it has come up with quarantine centres for its about 250,000 contract labourers and about 45,000 permanent employees.

Quarantine facilities have been made available from Eastern to Southern India while tie-ups with 144 hospitals have been made to provide medical care to the infected workforce, the company claimed.

At a time when the country is reeling under the second wave of the pandemic, several of Larsen & Toubro's project sites and manufacturing facilities have supported employees as well as contract workforce by providing safe, well-equipped and hygienic quarantine facilities for their wellbeing and care, a company official said.

The quarantine facilities have been made available at 14 cities and has a capacity of 1,205 rooms to safely isolate COVID patients with mild symptoms, the official said, adding the centres have been set up at Mumbai, Madh (Near Mumbai), Delhi-NCR, Hazira (Surat), Vadodara, Chacharwadi (Ahemdabad), Chennai, Kattupalli (Near Chennai), Cuttack, Kanchipuram (Tamil Nadu), Panvel (Maharashtra), Pilkhuwa (Uttar Pradesh), Attibele (Karnataka) and Serampore (Kolkata).

S N Subrahmanyan, CEO & MD, Larsen & Toubro told PTI: "The aim of this initiative is to provide safe and hygienic environment for Covid patients among employees and workforce with well-equipped centres, neat and clean rooms, supported by full medical supplies, hygienic environment, nutritious food and staffed with nursing personnel under strict medical supervision of able doctors."

The company has also gone one step ahead and have tied up with 144 hospitals spread across 30 cities including in Kolkata, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Delhi and Mumbai among others.

These hospitals provide medical care for those employees who are infected and require hospitalisation.

"I am glad that several of our businesses, establishments, training centres, HR teams, site management staff, medical officers, industrial relations teams, have come together under the able guidance of two task forces and has been providing best care for our people," Subrahmanyan added.

The quarantine centres are equipped with oxygen concentrators, oxygen cylinders, relevant medical equipment and medicines, daily doctor's visits, a doctor on call, full- time nursing staff, 24/7 ambulance facility and have tie ups with renowned hospitals for further treatment or follow-ups in case need arises.

L&T said the company has leveraged its various premises such as apartments, construction skill training academies, accommodation for staff, hostel, transit houses, guest houses and converted them into well-equipped quarantine centres besdies renting hotel rooms.

By March 2021, the company employed close to 2,45,000 contract labourers on its rolls. As per annual report 2019-20, L&T has 45,467 permanent employees.