Oxygen generation plants being installed using PM Cares Fund

NEW DELHI:  Eight pressure swing adsorption (PSA) oxygen generation plants are being installed in Delhi from the PM Cares fund and they will enhance the capacity of medical oxygen by 14.4 metric tonnes, government sources said on Sunday.

One plant in Burari Hospital, Kaushik Enclave, was installed on March 17 while four others, one each at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, Lok Nayak Hospital, Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital, Rohini and Deepa Chand Bandhu Hospital, Ashok Vihar, are expected to be completed by April 30, they said.

The site readiness of these hospitals was delayed by the Delhi government despite weekly reviews with them since November 2020, they claimed. For Ambedkar Nagar Hospital, Dakshinpuri, the site was prepared by as late as April 19 by the Delhi government, they alleged. Site readiness certificate of Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra Hospital at Narela has not yet been submitted by the Delhi government, they said.

Amid an unprecedented surge in the Covid-19 cases in national capital, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has often highlighted that its hospitals have been short on oxygen availability and has sought the Centre’s intervention.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday urged hospitals in Delhi not to raise alarms unnecessarily over oxygen shortage and appealed to the media to verify claims before reporting. Such acts hamper efforts to provide help to hospitals that really need assistance, Sisodia, who is also the nodal minister for Covid management in Delhi said on Sunday. 

“This morning, I got an SOS call from a hospital that had 18 kilo litres of oxygen in stock,” he tweeted. 
The hospital requires 4.8 kl a day and has a storage capacity of 21 kl, meaning it still has three days of supply left, the minister said.