Noida authority to continue oxygen supply service

NOIDA: Even as the demand for medical oxygen has declined to a large extent in the city, the Noida authority on Thursday said that it will continue providing oxygen cylinders and refilling facilities for Covid-19 patients

NOIDA: Even as the demand for medical oxygen has declined to a large extent in the city, the Noida authority on Thursday said that it will continue providing oxygen cylinders and refilling facilities for Covid-19 patients.

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The authority started supplying oxygen cylinders on May 3 from its two counters set up at community centres in sectors 93B and 135, amid the shortage of oxygen in the city. Currently, it provides, on an average, two cylinders daily in home delivery service while there is a demand for about 15 cylinders daily for refilling, said officials.

However, between May 3 and May 20, the authority provided over 1,500 oxygen cylinders to Covid-19 patients in need from its various centres. But the demand declined sharply since then and it supplied just over 200 cylinders from May 21 to June 3, the officials said.

“Serving even one patient daily is important for us. Therefore the oxygen supply service will continue,” said Mukesh Vaish, authority’s project engineer who is in-charge of the service.

The authority provides the D-type oxygen cylinders of two different capacities -- 40-litre and 5-litre -- for ₹500 and ₹200, respectively.

On May 11, the authority decentralized the process and started refilling empty cylinders at eight more locations in the city, said officials. On May 16, it also started home delivery of oxygen cylinders.

Meanwhile, the Greater Noida authority that provided around 700 oxygen cylinders in the past one month has shut down two centres (out of four) as the demand declined to seven cylinders daily from 40, said officials.

“We have shut down two oxygen counters in the city as the demand has declined due to the decrease in number of patients. Now, anyone who is in need can get cylinders from two centres located in City Park and Saini village,” said Deep Chand, additional chief executive officer, Greater Noida authority.