Oxygen from Bangkok and Paris will now save the lives of Delhi citizens.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said his Government is importing 21 ready-to-use oxygen plants from France. The plants will be installed in different hospitals to ensure steady supply, while 18 oxygen tankers from Thailand will start arriving from Wednesday.
At the same time, the first Oxygen Express train for Delhi carrying around 70 tonnes of the life-saving gas reached the national Capital early on Tuesday. The oxygen will now be distributed by the Delhi Government to various hospitals where patients are gasping for breath in the wake of heavy demand by patients battling the deadly coronavirus.
The city administration has also approached the Centre to allow the use of Indian Air Force’ planes for airlifting of liquid oxygen gas to ease the transportation keeping in view time and distance to save the lives of critical Covid patients.
In a close coordination with the Centre, the Delhi Government has worked out a plan to handle the medical oxygen crisis management as the city administration will set up 36 plants in Delhi’s hospitals by May 10. The work on seven of them installed by the Centre will be completed on April 30.
Officials in Delhi administration also shared that some industrialists have agreed to help the Delhi Government with immediate supply of oxygen from their plants. “Many industrialists agreed to help with medical oxygen supply but on the condition of anonymity,” said an official to The Pioneer.
“Linde has come forward with 58 MT of medical oxygen to Delhi,” Hemant Soren, Jharkhand, Chief Minister’s Office confirmed.
The Delhi Government is trying to convert ordinary beds into an ICU bed. The main Ramlila Maidan in front of LNJP hospital is also being converted into an ICU bed centre with a capacity of 500 beds, and 200 ICU beds are being readied at Radha Soami Satsang Beas. “These 1,200 ICU beds will be ready by 10 May,” Kejriwal said.
Kejriwal also claimed that the situation has seen improvement this week and the number of SOS messages received from hospitals has reduced due to the hard work and coordination between the Central and State Governments..
“We are trying our level best to increase the amount of oxygen available in Delhi. It has been noted that the oxygen allotted to us by the Central Government is also not reaching us in its entirety. A major issue facing us today in the supply of oxygen is the shortage in the number of tankers,” Kejriwal asserted.
Earlier, informing the arrival of the Oxygen Express Raillway Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted. “Oxygen Express has reached Delhi from Raigarh, Chhattisgarh with Oxygen for patients in the Capital. Indian Railways is leaving no stone unturned in our collective fight against Covid-19, & ensuring sufficient availability of life-saving resources across the country.”
The Indian railways have chalked out plans to transport medical oxygen from Angul, Kalingnagar, Rourkela and Raigarh to Delhi and NCR region as and when demand by the States including Delhi and adjoining States.
So far, 450 metric tonnes have been delivered to Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh & Delhi in six Oxygen Express through 26 tankers covering more than 10,000 km (in empty and loaded conditions), as per Indian railways information.
As per provisional estimates, 202 metric tonnes of oxygen has been delivered to Uttar Pradesh, 174 metric tonnes to Maharashtra and 70 metric tonnes to Delhi. Madhya Pradesh will receive 64 metric tonnes in next 24 hrs.
