551 O2 generation plants to come up at govt hosps through PM Cares Fund
A total of 551 dedicated pressure swing Adsorption (PSA) medical oxygen generation plants will be set up inside public health facilities across the country to boost availability of the life-saving gas amid its shortage in several states battling the COVID-19 surge.
The PMO said on Sunday that the PM Cares Fund has given in-principle approval for allocation of funds for their installation, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi directing these plants should be made functional as soon as possible.
He said these plants will serve as a major boost to oxygen availability at the district level. These dedicated plants will be established in identified government hospitals in district headquarters in various states and union territories, and their procurement will be done through the Health and Family Welfare ministry. The PM Cares Fund had earlier this year allocated Rs 201.58 crore for installation of additional 162 dedicated PSA medical oxygen generation plants inside public health facilities in the country, the PMO noted. It said the basic aim behind establishing PSA oxygen plants at government hospitals in the district headquarters is to further strengthen the public health system and ensure that each of these hospitals has a captive oxygen generation facility.
Such an in-house captive oxygen generation facility would address the day-to-day medical oxygen needs of these hospitals and the district.
“As per the data of Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisations (PESO), oxygen consumption in TN has already reached 310 metric tonnes (MTs) as against the inadequate allotment made to the state of only 220 MTs. Considering the current trend, the State would require 450 MTs shortly which would be more than our production capacity of 400 MTs,” said Palaniswami, in the DO letter written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
All-party meet today:
Sources in the Secretariat said that the CM has called for an urgent all-party meeting on Monday at 9.15 am and letters inviting parties have been sent. “As the case on Sterlite will be heard in the SC, the decision on whether the government should run the plant on its own to manufacture oxygen will be discussed and the State will present its argument,” a source said.
Pointing out that Chennai had the second highest COVID case load in south India, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said the move to divert medical oxygen from Sriperumbudur near the city to meet the demand in states with lesser caseload was not justified.
In his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, the Chief Minister noted that the states to which the allotment was made have lower number of virus cases than Tamil Nadu and also have major steel industries located within their State or close to their states, from where oxygen could be supplied.
“The diversion from the Sriperumbudur plant which supplies to Chennai, which has second biggest caseload in south India, seems to have no justification,” he said, cautioning that the mandatory diversion of oxygen could lead to a major crisis in Chennai and other districts.
Palaniswami explained that the demand for medical oxygen in growing in the State. “As compared to the maximum active case number of around 58,000 during the previous surge in 2020, the active caseload has already increased over a lakh today,” he said in the letter.