NEW DELHI: The government is likely to take up the setting up of captive oxygen generation plants at hospitals on a “mission” mode so that the task can be completed in 3-4 months.
Currently, work has started to set up nearly 300 such plants and the necessary construction works by three major government-owned construction agencies – NHAI,
CPWD and NBCC – has started at several locations.
Sources said so far only government hospitals are taking interest in setting up such plants and rope in private hospitals in tier-2 and tier-3 towns are going to be a key issue.
The government has an ambitious plan to set up nearly 1,600 such plants in the next 3-4 months. Sources said while carrying out civil construction works for the plants is not that big task, procurement and installation of the plants is far more critical.
“But you need to have a mission to achieve this target in a time-bound manner. You cannot meet the oxygen demand by bringing this from plants located 1,000-,1500 km away from the hospitals. This needs to be done to meet any future requirement,” said a source.
TOI has also learnt that a sub-committee under an empowered group on oxygen is prioritizing the 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.
Officials also said that the focus has to be more on areas that 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 caseload centres, then by the time the new facilities start functioning, the peak might be over. So, every aspect is being considered while fast-tracking these set up in specific locations on priority,” said one of the officials involved in this task.