12-hour road journey brings oxygen for Kashi hospitals

An oxygen tanker from Bokaro in Jharkhand reached an oxygen plant in Chandauli district’s Ramnagar industrial area in eastern Uttar Pradesh by road around 3am on Friday, covering the distance in “12 hours” instead of the usual 14 hours as a green corridor was created, officials said

An oxygen tanker from Bokaro in Jharkhand reached an oxygen plant in Chandauli district’s Ramnagar industrial area in eastern Uttar Pradesh by road around 3am on Friday, covering the distance in “12 hours” instead of the usual 14 hours as a green corridor was created, officials said.

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The driver Suresh Kumar, a resident of Pratapgarh, drove non-stop.

The arrival of the tanker with 20 tonnes (20,000 litres) of oxygen held the promise of easing the shortage in Varanasi somewhat amid the Covid-19 crisis.

Soon after arriving at Ramnagar, the liquid medical oxygen in the tanker was unloaded at the MedTech plant there. The plant then started preparing medical oxygen, which was filled in cylinders. The oxygen cylinders were supplied to hospitals, Varanasi district magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said.

Oxygen supply became somewhat normal by Friday noon.

“I wanted the oxygen tanker to reach the plant as early as it could. Therefore, I spoke to the tanker driver Suresh Kumar and apprised him of the oxygen crisis in Varanasi. I motivated him and said if the tanker reached two-three hours before the usual time, it will be a great help. I am thankful to the driver Suresh Kumar. On our request, he has brought it non-stop from Bokaro. He started around 2.30pm on Thursday and reached the MedTech plant, Ramnagar, at around 3am to save the lives of patients.”

Usually, it takes more than 14 hours to cover the distance from Bokaro to the oxygen plant in Ramnagar by road.

Varanasi commissioner of police A Satish Ganesh sent a police escort vehicle which met the tanker beyond Dehri-on-Sone in Bihar and escorted it to the Ramnagar plant.

“It was one of the most satisfying operations of my career,” Ganesh said.

The district magistrate said the MedTech plant earlier got shut around 11am on Thursday when its liquid oxygen stock ran out. As a result of the heavy pressure on oxygen supply on Thursday, new admissions in hospitals had to stop temporarily and a few patients were shifted from the hospitals that were left with little oxygen.

Sharma said there were six oxygen plants in the industrial area of Chandauli. Four of them make oxygen from air and two produce it from liquid medical oxygen.

Among these four plants, one has the capacity to produce 150 cylinders of oxygen every day and three others about 100 to 150 cylinders daily.

The two other plants, which use liquid medical oxygen to produce oxygen gas, have the capacity to produce 800 cylinders each in 24 hours.

The district magistrate said there were 43 hospitals listed as Covid-19 care facilities, including six government hospitals and 37 private ones. The oxygen cylinders were being supplied to them as per their quota and need daily, he said, adding that the oxygen cylinders were supplied to the hospitals today (Friday).

At the same time, oxygen cylinders are also being supplied to non-Covid hospitals.

Sharma said Varanasi will also get an oxygen tanker from the Oxygen Express, which is likely to reach the city at around Friday midnight.

At present, 3800 oxygen cylinders were being filled daily at oxygen plants in the industrial area of Chandauli. Varanasi is getting around 3400 cylinders every day against its daily need of around 6,000 cylinders.

An oxygen plant ,with the help of a local philanthropist, will be set up at the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay government district hospital. It is likely to function from the first week of May. Likewise, a proposal has been sent for setting up another oxygen plant at the divisional hospital.

Meanwhile, there are 1900 beds in Varanasi hospitals, 1600 of them with oxygen facility. All the beds with oxygen facility are occupied.