NEW DELHI, April 25: Amid an acute shortage of oxygen cylinders in the country, the Centre on Sunday approved three oxygen generating plants to be set up in Meghalaya for combating the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A plant each will be set up in East Khasi Hills, West Garo Hills and West Jaintia Hills district, officials said.
“In line with Prime Minister’s direction of boosting availability of oxygen to hospitals, the PMCARES Fund has given in-principle approval for allocation of funds for the installation of 551 dedicated pressure swing adsorption (PSA) medical oxygen generation plants inside the public health facilities in the country,” a statement said.
The Prime Minister has directed that these plants should be made functional as soon as possible for boosting oxygen availability at the district level.
These dedicated plants will be established in identified government hospitals in district headquarters in various states/Union Territories. The procurement will be done through the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The PMCARES Fund had earlier this year allocated Rs 201.58 crore for the installation of 162 dedicated PSA plants inside the public health facilities in the country.
The basic aim behind establishing these plants at government hospitals in the district headquarters is to strengthen the public health system and ensure that each of these hospitals has a captive oxygen generation facility. Such an in-house captive oxygen generation facility would address the day-to-day medical oxygen needs of these hospitals and the district, officials said.
In addition, liquid medical oxygen (LMO) would serve as a “top-up” to the captive oxygen generation. Such a system will go a long way in ensuring that government hospitals in the districts do not face sudden disruption of oxygen supplies and have access to adequate uninterrupted oxygen supply to manage the COVID-19 patients and other patients needing such support.
Meanwhile, Bhutan – the first country to receive COVID-19 vaccine from India – is literally returning the favour with its oxygen plant trying to resume supply to the neighbouring Northeast region. Assam Minister of State for Health, Pijush Hazarika and Rajya Sabha member, Biswajit Daimary visited an oxygen plant at Samdrup Jongkhar in Bhutan on Sunday.
The north-eastern states would be able to import oxygen from the plant to deal with the crisis that has deepened due to the rise in COVID-19 positive cases in the region. Work at Samdrup Jongkhar oxygen plant was stopped last year during the lockdown. Operations were resumed toward the last part of 2020.
The plant will take about 40 more days to complete and will generate 50 metric tonnes of oxygen per day for supply to various hospitals treating COVID-19 patients.
India is currently reeling under an acute shortage of oxygen and the armed forces have been pressed into service to transport oxygen to different hospitals in the country. While oxygen is available, there is a shortage of large containers to transport them.
