Work begins to set up LMO tank at Ludhiana district hospital

Nitin Jain

Tribun New Service

Ludhiana, September 29

The work has finally begun to set up the first-ever liquid medical oxygen (LMO) tank in the district hospital here, the government has confirmed.

While the work has been allotted to install the LMO tanks in Ludhiana among six district hospitals, bids have been called for setting up LMO tanks at the rest 17 district hospitals in the state, a senior government functionary said.

The official told The Tribune here on Wednesday that the tenders have been allotted and works such as site selection and online applications for requisite approvals have begun for setting up the LMO tanks at Ludhiana, Jalandhar (10 KL capacity each), Mohali 13 KL, Bathinda, Kapurthala and Sangrur (6 KL capacity each). These works have been funded from the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) and will be completed by December 15.

The LMO tanks at other 17 district hospitals will cost Rs 666 lakh, of which Rs 340 lakh have been approved under the Emergency Covid Response Package (ECRP-II) while rest of the funds will be arranged by the state government from other sources.

Among these districts, Amritsar and Patiala will get LMO tanks of 10 KL capacity each while Tarn Taran, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Muktsar, Moga, Fazilka, Ferozepur, Barnala, Mansa, Nawanshahr, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ropar, Faridkot, and Malerkotla will get LMO tanks of 6 KL capacity each.

“Bids for these works have been called and the case has been sent to the Centre for approval of additional funds,” said the official, while adding that these LMO tanks would be made operational by December 31.

Earlier, there were only eight LMO tanks in government hospitals with a storage capacity of 37.3 MT across the state and the additional LMO tanks coming up in the district hospitals will further add 248.5 MT storage capacity for the life-saving gas. In the private sector, 52 LMO tanks have storage capacity of 315.48 MT, while 20 more such tanks were proposed to be set up to add 121.91 MT storage volume.

With this, the total LMO tanks in the government sector will go up to 31 and private sector to 72 with a storage capacity of 285.9 MT in government and 437.39 MT in private hospitals.

Besides, the state has 41 LMO tanks at the refilling stations with a storage capacity of 676.1 MT of medical oxygen.

These included maximum 10 in Ludhiana with highest capacity of 129.9 MT of storing life-saving gas, followed by Amritsar and Fatehgarh Sahib 5 each with 96 MT and 30 MT storage capacity, respectively, Bathinda and Jalandhar 4 each with 40 MT and 88 MT each, respectively, Mohali, Patiala, and Sangrur 2 each with 76 MT, 55 MT, and 41 MT each, respectively, Fazilka, Hoshiarpur, Moga, Pathankot, Muktsar, Mansa, and Faridkot have 1 LMO tank each with capacity to store 18 MT, 18 MT, 20 MT, 14 MT, 20 MT, 20 MT, and 11 MT each, respectively.

However, Ropar and newly-created Malerkotla districts have no LMO tanks at the refilling units.