Amid a dip in the mercury in the national capital, the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board has set up 190 tents across the city to house the homeless at night, a DUSIB official said on Tuesday.

These tents can accommodate approximately 8,000 people. Around 60 tents have been kept as standby and will be used as per requirement, Member Expert, DUSIB, Bipin Rai told PTI.

Delhi on Monday recorded its coldest day of the month so far as the minimum temperature dropped to 5.3 degrees Celsius, two notches below the season's average and almost the same as the hill station of Nainital, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

"We have set up 190 special tents as of now and 60 tents have been kept as standby. We usually keep 350 tents ready and deploy them as per requirement. Approximately 8,000 people have been staying in the tents set up by the DUSIB at night and around 4,000 stay during the day," Rai said.

"On an average, we rescue 200 to 300 people in a day from various locations. Earlier, we used to provide tea and snacks to these rescued people but now we have started providing meals three times a day," he said.

The DUSIB began shifting homeless people to temporary tent shelters set up as part of the city government's winter action plan in December 2023.

A total of 15 rescue teams have been deployed on the ground to create awareness about the arrangements. The teams identify clusters of homeless people and inform the control room, which sends volunteers to shift such people to the temporary shelters.

Teams of doctors also visit these shelters twice a week.

According to the Delhi government, 195 DUSIB shelter homes with a total capacity of 7,092 people are functional in the city at present.

DUSIB teams pick up homeless people living on roads or in open spaces from 10 pm to 4 am every day. Each rescue team is equipped with one vehicle, driver and two attendants.

After receiving information about homeless people from the DUSIB control room or other sources, the teams pick them up from the identified location and take them to a nearby shelter or hospital as needed.

A centralised control room with dedicated staff has been set up at Punarwas Bhawan, I.P. Estate to monitor and assist the rescue teams. The control room receives complaints and information 24x7 through a dedicated helpline, mobile app and through other sources.

The control room can be contacted through toll-free number 14461, 011-23378789 and 011-23370560 (landline) and +919871013284 (WhatsApp).

A mobile app, 'Rain Basera', to track and rescue homeless people is also available. It can be downloaded from Google Play Store.

"Any person who comes across a homeless person lying/residing along the roadside can simply click a photograph in his/her smart phone and submit it to central control room. The central control room automatically locates the sender/homeless person through GPS and informs the rescue teams to rescue the homeless person," the DUSIB had said in a notice issued earlier.

The shelters are equipped with facilities like drinking water, toilets, lockers for belongings, complaint boxes, first aid boxes and televisions. All of these facilities are free.

Each shelter home has a caretaker, who is available for eight hours every day, and a female security guard.

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