Haveli, the restaurant next to the Tank 9 petrol pump in CK Block, has relaunched itself in the pandemic as a safe home. Having tied up with ILS Hospitals and NGO Ekal Parivar, it is taking in Covid patients with mild symptoms, free of cost.
Called Ekal Isolation Center, the service started from May 17 with 25 available rooms. “The third, fourth and fifth floors of the building, above the restaurant, used to be a hotel before the pandemic, under the name The Saltee Hotel. We are now offering those rooms to patients as a form of social service,” says Surya Prakash Bagla, chairman of the Saltee Group that runs Haveli.
Under the arrangement, Haveli is providing lodging, food, wifi, TV free of cost, while ILS is providing doctors, medicines and pathology. Nurses, oxygen, hospitality and logistics are being managed by Ekal Parivar.
For admission, however, patients are to get in touch with ILS, which will then recommend cases to Haveli.
“We have a doctor posted there and are providing the medicines,” said Aruna Tantia, director, GPT Healthcare that runs ILS Hospitals.
On the first day, five patients had checked in. “If two people from the same family check in, they may put up in the same room. Otherwise the rooms are meant for single use,” says Bagla.
The vegetarian food is being prepared by chefs of Haveli and meals are being planned keeping in mind the needs of the patients.
“For the past 10 days or so, Haveli and Ekal Parivar have also been delivering meals to homes of those in quarantine, free of cost,” says Bagla. “We began this initiative within Salt Lake and are already serving more than 200 meals a day. So we have decided to extend the service to Lake Town, Bangur, Phoolbagan , Kankurgachhi and central Calcutta.”
Additional reporting by Sudeshna Banerjee