Work on oxygen plants in Gurugram yet to start, district not on priority lists, say officials

Work on the construction of six new oxygen plants in Gurugram is likely to be delayed as the district does not figure on the two priority lists announced by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), officials familiar with the development said on Tuesday

Work on the construction of six new oxygen plants in Gurugram is likely to be delayed as the district does not figure on the two priority lists announced by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), officials familiar with the development said on Tuesday.

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On Tuesday, Gurugram received around 37 metric tonnes of oxygen from plants in Bhiwadi of Rajasthan, Panipat and Faridabad, officials said. However, the district has a requirement of around 55 metric tonnes of oxygen per day, shortage of which caused a multitude of issues over the past few weeks.

NHAI officials said that site inspections have been conducted, but the work will commence only when the district is named on the priority list.

“We have conducted site inspections and the planning is being done but the work will only when Gurugram figures in the priority list. We are expecting this to happen very soon. The civil and electrical infrastructure set up will be completed in 15 days,” said Suresh Kumar, project director, NHAI.

Rao Inderjit Singh, the Lok Sabha member from Gurugram and union minister of state, said that he has already taken up this issue with the health ministry to ensure that Gurugram hospitals are included in the next priority list.

“I have taken up this issue with the union health ministry. Not only these oxygen plants, but I have also asked the state government to ensure that large private hospitals also install their own plants as there is a strong possibility of a third wave. We must also increase the number of oxygen beds and ventilators in city hospitals and across Haryana,” said Singh, adding that the issues were also taken up with the chief minister in a virtual meeting on Tuesday.

The task of creating civil and electrical infrastructure for setting up 581 pressure swing absorption plants near hospitals across the country has been given to the highways authority. Out of these 581 plants, district administration officials said that 50 will come up in Haryana and six of them in Gurugram.

According to the NHAI officials, six hospitals in Haryana have been included in the two priority lists released by the authority. In the first list, civil hospitals in Charki Dadri, Bhiwani and Narayangarh (in Ambala district) were prioritised for oxygen plants. In the second list, three hospitals in Kaithal, Ambala and Bhiwani were included.

NHAI officials in Gurugram said that they have inspected the sites at Civil Hospital, subdivisional hospitals in Pataudi, Sohna and one at Mandikhera in Nuh district. “We are ready to work on the design based on steel fabrication for these plants and work will be completed in 15 days. As soon as the oxygen plant is delivered, it would be ready for installation and made operational at the earliest,” said Kumar.

The NHAI would be spending around ₹15 lakh for constructing each plant, said officials.

The Gururgam district administration last week had said that the plant at Civil hospital will have a production capacity of 1,000 litres per minute, while those at Sohna and Pataudi will have capacities of 200 litres per minute, each. The plant at Mandikhera in Nuh will have a production capacity of 500 litres per minute.