Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Thursday that his government is setting up 48 plants across Delhi to address the oxygen shortage.
“We are setting up 48 such plants across Delhi to address the shortage of oxygen,” he said on the sidelines of his visit to Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra Hospital where he went to inspect the newly installed oxygen plant.
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Speaking on the utility of the oxygen plant, Kejriwal informed that the plant can generate 330 litres of oxygen which can fill 50-60 cylinders, and if used directly, around 33 patients can be treated 24X7.
The plant was donated by the government of France as a goodwill gesture, to which Kejriwal extended his gratitude. I thank the French government for its support to help install this oxygen plant.
“About 48 similar oxygen plants are being installed across Delhi, out of which 21 are being imported from France, and the rest are from India. Though these are small plants, I feel they will provide a lot of support to the entire system that is under pressure due to shortage of oxygen,” he added.
Responding to a query on Delhi’s oxygen needs, Kejriwal said, “Delhi’s oxygen requirement is 700MT, and if we get this daily, proper arrangements can be made in Delhi’s hospitals. With sufficient oxygen, we can even set up additional beds. Several hospitals have reduced their beds due to oxygen shortage. If sufficient oxygen is available, all Delhi hospitals can work at full capacity. And many hospitals have told us that they can work beyond their capacity as well, and can set up 50-100 extra beds. In times of such a pandemic, we need to increase as many beds as possible.”
“I would like to thank the Central Government, Supreme Court, and High Court. It is with their efforts that yesterday for the first time, Delhi received 700MT oxygen; otherwise, we used to get 300 or 320 MT on some days, and on others, it would be 400-450 MT oxygen. You might have noticed that in the last 24 hours, there have been no messages regarding oxygen that’d last only a few hours,” he added.
