Lucknow: To help ease the ongoing medical oxygen crisis amid spiralling coronavirus cases in the state, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has been taking constant measures to meet its rising demand.

The Yogi-led government has not only worked to set up new oxygen generator plants in the state-run and even private medical colleges and institutions, but also, is taking steps for the revival of closed units to augment supply to meet the demand close to 650 MT of oxygen everyday.

In this sequence, as many as two refilling plants in Meerut have been revived and have already started producing the life-saving fluid again, whereas, in the coming week, the plants that had been shut down in Gorakhpur and Varanasi will be restarted and a new Oxygen producing plant will also be set up in Meerut.

“Steps are being taken for the revival of closed units to increase supply to meet the rising demand of medical oxygen. The closed plants will begin producing oxygen in a day or two which will boost the availability of oxygen in all districts,” stated Additional Chief Secretary (Information and MSME), Navneet Sehgal.

To ensure smooth, timely and transparent supply of medical oxygen to the covid critical patients in government and private hospitals, on the instructions of CM Yogi, Uttar Pradesh became the first state to develop an ‘Oxygen Monitoring System’ – for 24×7 live monitoring of the oxygen supply system across the state.

For proper monitoring, live-tracking of demand, supply and distribution of medical oxygen, an audit system of oxygen in collaboration with IIT-Kanpur, IIM-Lucknow and IIT-BHU has been implemented.

Two Refilling Plants restarted in Meerut
In Meerut, Krishna Agency and Aggarwal Gas Agency that had been shut since 3 and 5 years respectively, have been restarted. Both the plants have a capacity of refilling as many as one thousand cylinders per day.

An NOC has been granted by the concerned departments for restarting both the plants which have been revived with the efforts of the local administration and the Department of Micro and Small Industries. Apart from this, one more new O2 producing plant will be set up in Meerut in a week.

O2 production to start from a plant in Agra

According to the District Magistrate of Agra, Prabhu N Singh, with the help of the Indian Army, an oxygen producing plant is all set to produce O2 in Agra.

The plant which required an ‘intercooler copper tube’ for smooth production of oxygen was brought by the Indian Army from Ahmedabad last night. The plant is set to supply oxygen to 1000 D-type jumbo cylinders now.

Closed plant in Varanasi revived to refill 400 cylinders per day

A four-metric ton oxygen refilling plant that had been shut since 3 years in Varanasi has been revived to refill as many as 400 oxygen cylinders daily. The plant is expected to begin producing oxygen from May 2.

One more closed unit revived to produce oxygen in Gorakhpur

With the constant efforts of the Gorakhpur Administration, Shakti Annapurna Oxygen Factory in Gorakhpur has been revived to produce a total of 1500 oxygen cylinders everyday, which will increase the availability of oxygen for critical covid patients in Gorakhpur.

Currently, three oxygen producing units in Gorakhpur are producing a total of 2600 cylinders daily. Once the fourth plant starts functioning, around 4100 cylinders will be supplied daily.

Government and Social Organisations teamed up to increase availability of oxygen in Bahraich

According to the District Magistrate of Bahraich, Shambhu Kumar, an oxygen plant has been set up with the combined efforts of the local administration, government and social workers, which has been supplying oxygen to 12 -15 beds.

Shambhu Kumar further informed that an amount of Rs 55 L under the State Disaster Relief Fund has been released to set up a new oxygen producing plant which will supply oxygen for 24 hours up to 30-40 beds. With this, another O2 producing plant will be set up at the Medical College at a cost of Rs 2 cr which will become functional in four weeks.

An Oxygen Producing Company restarted in Prayagraj

The state government has initiated to restart the production of a closed factory of a public sector unit Bharat Pumps and Compressors Limited (BPCL) in Prayagraj.

The UP government not only offered all logistic help but placed orders for 3000 cylinders. The order will be executed by next month and will ease the problem of empty oxygen cylinders.