6 oxygen plants to be completed soon for dealing with COVID-19: DHS

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMay 21, 2021

Installation of as many as six oxygen generation plants for effectively tackling the second wave of the COVID-19 across the state will be completed by next week.

“There are six number of oxygen plants where installation is going on. We hope that all these plants will be up and running by early part of next week,” Director of Health Services (MI) Dr Aman War told reporters on Friday.

Of these, the three plants – at Shillong civil hospital, Ganesh Das hospital and RP Chest TB hospital – have been sanctioned from the PM Cares, Government of India.

He informed that the 600 litres per minute (LPM) oxygen plant at Shillong civil hospital is being airlifted from Delhi and will be reaching the state capital on May 25.

In the meantime because of the want of oxygen in Shillong civil hospital, Dr War said the government has arranged installation of six generators of 45 LPM each which was done and running from this last Monday.

“The six generators are catering to 25 COVID beds in the COVID wing of the Shillong civil hospital and that too on high flow which means a very high consumption of oxygen,” he said.

The piping has already been done for Shillong civil hospital, he said adding now what is needed is just to connect the pipe from the generation plant to the manifold room and from there oxygen can be distributed accordingly to all the wards.

Further, the DHS also informed that another oxygen plant for the RP Chest TB hospital is on the way from Guwahati airport which had been airlifted from Delhi yesterday.

“As soon as it reaches today, installation will start from tomorrow. Piping has already been done and we expect by early part of next week these machines will be up and running,” he said while adding that the plant at Ganesh Das hospital will also be up and running by tomorrow.  

The three other oxygen plants for Jowai, Tura and Nongpoh have been sanctioned by the UNDP.

Dr War said the machines for Nongpoh and Jowai have reached and are under the state of installation while for Tura, the machine is also on the way and must have reached by now. “All these piping and everything are going on in full swing, they are working 24×7,” he said.

On the other hand, the senior medical officer also informed that the government has come up with two cryogenic oxygen plants to be set up at Umsawli, Shillong and Jengjal, Tura.

“Work is going on in full swing for the 13 KL plant at Umsawli and we expect that this plant will be up and running by June 15 latest. The plant will be able to deliver 1,000 cylinder refilling capacity in a day,” he said.

“In Jengjal, Tura another 20 KL plant is coming up and we expect it will be ready within 2 weeks time. Side preparation has already been done. Now we only have to do the civil works which are going on in full swing and it may come up earlier than the one in Shillong and this will cater to 2,000 cylinders per day,” he added.

Dr War said the government expects that these plants will be sufficient to give continuous supply of oxygen to Khasi-Jaintia and Garo Hills regions of the state.

Meanwhile, the DHS also informed that small 45 LPM plants will also be set up at the community health centres (CHCs) if the necessity arises.

“We have seen the 45 LPM plant within one hour we can set them up provided that we get the machines. If it is necessary then these other plants will also be set up,” he said.