PATNA: At least one tanker filled with more than 15,000 litres of liquid oxygen reached here from Bokaro in Jharkhand early on Friday to meet the crisis of oxygen shortage in hospitals treating Covid-19 patients in Patna.
The liquid oxygen consignment would be provided to the three private gas plants in Patna to refill cylinders for hospitals. Currently, Patna needs at least four tankers of liquid oxygen daily to meet the demand for medical oxygen.
The Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority (BIADA) chief administrative officer Santosh Kumar Sinha told TOI over the phone on Friday that two more tankers carrying liquid oxygen are expected to reach Patna by late evening on Friday.
“Those two tankers are coming from Bokaro,” he said.
When asked about the makeshift arrangement of using liquid nitrogen tankers of Bihar state milk cooperative federation limited for transporting liquid oxygen from manufacturing plants, Sinha said the Patna district administration has till now informed about two such tankers for use.
“However, paperwork is to be completed as they are newly purchased. Registration numbers were allotted hardly two days back,” he said.
Sinha said PESO (Petroleum and Explosive Safety Organization) certification for these tankers is pending. “That may get cleared within a day after which they could be used to transport liquid oxygen,” he added.
Sinha further said the district administration has not provided any information if old nitrogen tankers are available with the federation and why they are not being roped in without delaying in the present situation.
TOI tried contacting Patna divisional commissioner Sanjay Kumar Agarwal and DM Chandrashekhar Singh for an update but both disconnected the call.
It was the DM's proposal at the high-level virtual meeting on Thursday to use nitrogen carrying tankers for ferrying liquid oxygen to Patna from other states.
Patna district industry centre general manager Amarnath Dubey told this newspaper on Friday that they have started monitoring the three oxygen refilling plants from Thursday night.
“The oxygen plant at Fatuha has a normal capacity of refilling around 1,200 cylinders per day, the one at Sipara has a capacity of 800 cylinders while the one at Deedarganj can refill around 1,100 cylinders per day,” Dubey said.
He said with the availability of liquid oxygen, the Fatuha plant’s daily capacity will go up by 700 cylinders, the Sipara plant by 1,500 and the third plant by 2,000 cylinders.
However, as per the district administration’s assessment, hospitals in Patna require around 10,000 oxygen cylinders per day. This figure was shared by the DM during Thursday's meeting.
Meanwhile, Patna deputy development commissioner (DDC) Richie Pandey told this newspaper that the order of diverting 90% of oxygen gas prepared by these plants to hospitals, by massively curtailing supply to industries, has been brought into effect.