New Delhi February 07: The Railway ministry signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) on Tuesday to augment the existing system of Ayush in Railway Hospitals.

The AYUSH health services would be scaled up in five Railway Hospitals at New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Guwahati. The names are: B R Singh Hospital in Eastern Railway, Perambur Railway Hospital Southern Railway, Central Hospital of Northern Railway, JR Hospital in Western Railway and Central Hospital of Northeast Frontier Railway.

On the occasion, Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha said, "The ensuring wellness of Railway employees was of prime concern. The traditional knowledge of AYUSH systems could be harnessed to particularly help the vast majority of Railway staff who were required to put in stressful field duties on site." The agreement was signed by Principal Executive Director and Health Dr Gajendra Kumar, on behalf of the Railways and Advisor Dr Manoj Nesari from AYUSH Ministry.

Under the terms of the MoU signed, Ministry of Railways will arrange for providing logistics and infrastructure in the form of land and building, equipment, furniture, AYUSH medicines and consumables as well as manpower as per its guidelines. It will organise and provide orientation training to newly recruited AYUSH Doctors and AYUSH Paramedical.

Minister of State of Railways & Minister of State of Communication, Manoj Sinha, Minister of State for AYUSH, Shripad Yesso Naik, Minister of State of Railways, Rajen Gohain, Chairman Railway Board, Ashwani Lohani, other Railway Board Members and dignitaries from both the Ministries were present on the occasion.