On the Ceylon Island in the Indian Ocean, China Railway 25th Bureau Group Corporation Limited, a subsidiary of China Railway Construction Corporation Limited has been playing a role in the outpatient building project of the National Hospital of Sri Lanka amid the outbreak of the COVID-19.
A view of the construction site of the National Hospital of Sri Lanka [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
The largest public hospital that is still under construction in Sri Lanka, the National Hospital covers an area of about 14,900 square meters and mainly includes construction of a modern outpatient building.
A key project to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Sri Lanka, it was scheduled to be completed in July 2021.
However, facing a tight schedule, some local workers did not showed up as usual. Kumar, the head at the construction site, asked for days off from the site suddenly.
He was respected by local builders and his attitude would impact quite a lot of people working on the site. Therefore, the company formed a special team to visit him to see whether he needed any help.
Although Kumar did not show any worry of the COVID-19 pandemic during the conversation, his after-visiting message to the interpreter reflected his anxiety over the outbreak.
It was totally reasonable as news about the spread of COVID-19 in various countries made many people as well as the local builders at the project upset.
Soon after learning about local builders' worries, a special team of the company started to take actions on anti-pandemic prevention and control.
The construction site was disinfected four times a day. Anti-pandemic supplies like masks were provided to all employees at the site.
The team also visited local employees, chatted with them online and offline to allay their worries, and held lectures on pandemic prevention and control to increase employees' anti-pandemic knowledge.
With the efforts of the Chinese team at the construction site, 168 Chinese and Sri Lankan builders were able to continue working safely.
In addition to safe construction, CRCC also played a role in providing anti-pandemic supplies to Sri Lanka. The supplies were valued at about 30,000 yuan ($4,713).
The company responsible for the National Hospital project donated 3,000 and 10,000 disposable masks to the local Police Station and the Ministry of Health of Sri Lanka respectively on April 5 and 6, 2020.
(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)
