Ludhiana district has 4,448 cylinders to store 32 MT medical oxygen

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

LUDHIANA, OCTOBER 10

Even as Ludhiana is still short of 61 metric tonnes (MT) of medical oxygen to meet the peak demand for Covid and non-Covid patients, the district leads the state when it comes to cylinders and their storage capacity, claims the administration.

“Already having 4,448 cylinders with a capacity to store 32 MT of life-saving gas, the district has proposed to further acquire 1,316 more oxygen cylinders with an additional capacity of 10.9 MT,” officials said.

Officialspeak

We will be adding 1,316 more oxygen cylinders with a capacity to store 10.9 MT more life-saving gas. The health infrastructure is being further ramped up to meet exigency, if any, in future. Varinder Kumar Sharma, Deputy Commissioner

The district-wise current and projected oxygen storage in cylinders compiled by the state government, a copy of which is available with The Tribune, revealed that Ludhiana has 1,292 cylinders with 9.8 MT storage capacity in government hospitals while the private sector has 3,156 cylinders storing 22.2 MT of life-saving gas.

While there was no plan to expand the cylinder storage capacity in the government sector, the district has proposed to add 1,316 more cylinders with a storage capacity of 10.9 MT.

The state has a total of 30,016 oxygen cylinders, including 13,271 in government and 16,745 in private hospitals, with a storage capacity of 229.9 MT, comprising 94.7 MT in government and 135.2 MT in private sector.

Further, Punjab has proposed to acquire 6,564 more cylinders, including 1,228 in government and 5,336 in the private sector, with an additional capacity to store 54.5 MT of life-saving gas, comprising 9.2 MT in government and 45.3 MT in private hospitals.

The district-wise breakup showed that barring Jalandhar, all other districts were behind Ludhiana in the number of oxygen cylinders and storage capacity.

Jalandhar has 5,344 cylinders with storage capacity of 47.8 MT while it proposed to add 1,481 more cylinders with an additional capacity of 13.3 MT.

Among other district, Amritsar’s existing status was 3,028 with 25.3 MT capacity and proposal to add 569 cylinders with 4.6 MT, Barnala existing 332 cylinders with 2 MT capacity, Bathinda 1,500 with 10.6 MT and proposed 958 with 8.1 MT, Faridkot 697 with 5.4 MT, Fatehgarh Sahib 454 with 3.2 MT, Fazilka 348 with 3.2 MT and proposed 206 with 1.9 MT, Ferozepur 769 with 4.7 MT proposed 46 with 0.4 MT, Gurdaspur 846 with 4.6 MT and proposed 125 with 2.2 MT, Hoshiarpur 761 with 6.4 MT and proposed 42 with 0.4 MT, Kapurthala 938 with 8 MT and proposed 27 with 0.2 MT, Mansa 452 with 4.1 MT and proposed 16 with 0.1 MT, Moga 997 with 7.8 MT and proposed 211 with 1.9 MT, Muktsar 594 with 4.3 MT, Pathankot 785 with 6.2 MT and proposed 341 with 2.7 MT, Patiala 2,654 with 19 MT and proposed 735 with 6.5 MT, Ropar 1,085 with 7.3 MT and proposed 60 with 0.6 MT, Mohali 1,709 with 12.5 MT and proposed 355 with 3.1 MT, Sangrur 490 with 3.4 MT and proposed one cylinder, Nawanshahr 875 with 5.6 MT and proposed eight cylinders, and Tarn Taran has 910 cylinders with 6.2 MT storage capacity.