Maharashtra: Thermal units to supply oxygen to govt hospitals

MUMBAI: Energy minister Nitin Raut on Monday announced Maharashtra’s ‘Mission Oxygen’ campaign under which the state’s thermal power generators from Mahagenco will soon produce medical oxygen—through existing ozonation plants—and refill 1,454 jumbo cylinders daily to cater to the demand from government hospitals.
The plants include those at Parli, Koradi, Khaparkheda and Paras, which will be instrumental in daily production of 95% pure medical oxygen. There will be no hurdle in the routine electricity generation work at the power stations, reports Somit Sen.
Mahagenco is the state-owned power generation utility with several thermal power stations across Maharashtra. Officials said the thermal plants will produce oxygen through their existing ozonation plants.
“The government has also imported the latest technology compressors, filters and other essentials machinery from abroad. At Koradi, we plan to produce a record 1,002 jumbo oxygen cylinders per day,” the official said. Each jumbo cylinder can hold nearly seven cubic metres of oxygen.
A senior Mahagenco official said, “In the first phase, the new Parli power station has set up an oxygen plant at Swami Ramanand Tirtha rural hospital in Ambejogai with a capacity of 288 jumbo cylinders per day and 95.2% purity. With the commissioning of this plant on April 27, Covid patients in Parli-Beed and neighbouring areas have already benefited.”
In the second phase, medical oxygen supply will be achieved by Khaparkheda power station at a capacity of 42 cubic metre per hour and by Paras power station at 50 cubic metre per hour. “Mahagenco has started the process to complete the construction of this oxygen plant within the next one to one and a half months,” the Mahagenco official said.
“We plan to supply 1,002 jumbo cylinders per day through Koradi power station, 128 cylinders per day through Paras power station, and Parli power will produce 216 cylinders of oxygen,” the official added.