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Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 18
With India’s daily COVID cases rising at an alarming 11 per cent and daily fatalities at 11.94 per cent, the Centre on Sunday stepped in to address medical oxygen shortages saying 33 pressure swing absorption (PSA) plants to produce oxygen had been installed, four of these in Himachal Pradesh.
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By end of April 2021, 59 will be installed.
By end of May 2021, 80 will be installed.
The entire cost of 162 PSA Oxygen plants amounting to Rs 201.58 crore has been borne by the Central Government.
This includes a seven-year maintenance cost to start from the fourth year onwards after three years of warranty.
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the availability of life-saving medical equipment and drugs, the Health Ministry on Sunday morning said that 162 PSA oxygen plants have been sanctioned for installation in public health facilities in all States.
These will augment medical oxygen capacity by 154.19 MT. Meanwhile, 50,000 MT of oxygen will be imported.
Out of 162 PSA plants, 33 have already been installed—5 in MP, 4 in Himachal Pradesh, 3 each in Chandigarh, Gujarat and Uttarakhand, 2 each in Bihar, Karnataka and Telangana and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Punjab and UP.
“States have appreciated installation of PSA Oxygen plants in their public health facilities. In addition to 162 plants already sanctioned, they have requested Government of India for more than 100 such additional plants which are also being sanctioned,” said the ministry after Maharashtra flagged a critical shortage of oxygen.
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