59 cities of Rajasthan to get 105 oxygen plants

Jaipur: To prepare the government hospitals for the third wave of Covid, 105 oxygen generation plants will be set up in 59 cities of Rajasthan in the next two months. The government has issued work orders for these plants. Besides this, private hospitals with 60-bed capacity have also been directed to establish their oxygen plant.

Rajasthan is facing an acute shortage of oxygen this time as more than 2.08 lakh active cases are there in the state. The Central government has allotted a quota of 435 MT to Rajasthan, where the demand is more than 600 MT. 100 MT of the allotted quota has to be lifted from Burnpur in West Bengal and Kalinganagar in Odisha. Both the cities are more than 1000 km away from Rajasthan and it takes around 3-4 days for a tanker to reach there and return.

In the meanwhile, the government has taken steps to generate oxygen at the hospital level and decide to set up 105 oxygen plants in 59 cities of the state. These plants will generate 97 MT oxygen daily and supply to 5786 hospital beds every day. Besides this, private hospitals with 60 beds capacity will also have to establish oxygen plants and centralize oxygen distribution system for their 50 per cent beds within two months.

The state government is constantly requesting the Central government to increase the quota of oxygen for the state. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the telephone on Sunday and requested him to supply the oxygen based on the number of active cases. Gehlot also talked to Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and requested to continue the services of the Air Force for oxygen supply. He also demanded to set up oxygen plants of DRDO in all the districts of Rajasthan.