Industrialists save the day with oxygen supply

Manesar-based industrialists on Wednesday answered the district administration’s request for oxygen supply, providing 10,000 litres, as city-based hospitals were running low on their supplies earlier in the day, officials of the health department said

Manesar-based industrialists on Wednesday answered the district administration’s request for oxygen supply, providing 10,000 litres, as city-based hospitals were running low on their supplies earlier in the day, officials of the health department said.

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Officials of the district administration said that although the volume was not high, it helped hospitals tide over short supply till the evening, when the stock from their distributor in Panipat was expected to arrive. Officials of the health department confirmed in the evening that a tanker was on its way to Gurugram.

Yash Garg, deputy commissioner, Gurugram confirmed that help was sought from the industrialists in Manesar to source oxygen. “Yes, we have got it,” said Garg, on Wednesday afternoon.

Health department officials said that industrial units supply oxygen directly to hospitals and they have no role to play in it. “Since the regular supply from Bhiwadi is disrupted, the hospitals have sought our help,” said a health department official requesting anonymity, adding that surge in Covid-19 cases led to excess demand and the problem was complicated due to disruption in supply.

Pawan Yadav, the president of IMT Industrial Association, said that they were told that oxygen supply in Gurugram hospitals would last only until the afternoon and they needed help to tide over the situation as the regular supply would be provided by the evening. “We got a call from deputy commissioner, Gurugram, in this matter and soon after, the industry owners started an exercise to reach out to one another,” said Yadav.

He said that the owner of an industrial gas production company in Manesar supplied 10,000 litres of oxygen through cylinders to the district administration.

The demand for oxygen shot up in the last two weeks due to an exponential rise in Covid-19 cases in the district, said officials. While the consumption of oxygen prior to the surge was five to six metric tonnes, it has now risen 13 to 14 tonnes per day. On Wednesday, the number of cases reported in the district stood at 2,988, the highest single-day spike since the start of the pandemic.

Yadav said that the 10,000 litres of oxygen were given to the district administration free of cost and that industrialists will pool in money to bear the cost. “This gas is worth ₹16 lakh, but it was decided that no money would be charged and it would be a free service for the people of the city. The industrialists will contribute towards the cost,” said Yadav.

“We had stock of few hundred cylinders in our factory and some in large tanks. We decided to recall supplied gas from large customers and this was filled into cylinders for delivery to hospitals,” said Deepak Shami, managing director, Star Specual Air Gas Pvt Ltd, which provided the supply to the administration.