Government prioritising oxygen plants in high Covid load areas

NEW DELHI: The government has prioritised setting up of pressure swing adsorption (PSA) medical oxygen generation plants in different parts of the country based on the high number of Covid cases and distance of these locations from the already existing oxygen generation plants.
Sources said the government has now involved three major construction agencies — National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) — for setting up of these plants in the quickest possible time.
They added while structures for plants to be set up by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) can be built in 7-10 days, the others to be set up by a Noida-based firm HITES will require a month. "The agencies which are working in specific areas are being assigned the work so that civil and electrical works can be completed quickly," said an official.
Officials also said that the focus has to be more on areas which are more than 300-400 km away from the existing oxygen generation plants while creating new facilities so that the turnaround time of the existing fleet of tankers increases. "If we will focus more on high case load centres, then by the time the new facilities start functioning, the peak might be over. So, every aspects are being considered while fast tracking these set up in specific locations on priority," said one of the officials involved in this task.
According to the government, 1,594 PSA plants are being established to improve oxygen supply near demand clusters. So far 74 out of 162 PSA plants have been installed and the rest will be installed by June. Another 1,051 additional PSA plants have been sanctioned under PM-CAREs fund and these will be commissioned in the next three months.
Official data also show that the total number of oxygen tankers is currently around 1,700. The fleet size is set to increase with conversion of 200 nitrogen and argon tankers to carry oxygen and 58 tankers will be imported soon. Additional 100 tankers are being manufactured.
"The solution lies in captive oxygen plants at hospitals rather than depending on supply from oxygen plants located hundreds of km from the site," said a source in the oxygen supplying industry.