The Mumbai metropolitan region will soon have 14 plants for producing medical oxygen from the air. The plants would be set up by local municipal bodies. Each plant would be able to produce about two tonnes of oxygen per day, said Maharashtra’s Urban Development Minister, Eknath Shinde in a media statement on Sunday.
Due to the ongoing Covid pandemic, the state and the Mumbai metropolitan region has been facing a massive shortage of medical oxygen.
The statement said that local municipal bodies in places such as Thane, Kalyan Dombivali, Ambernath, Badlapur and other areas have come forward for setting up the plant. These plants will be operational in the next few days.
Shinde said in the statement that this capacity is being added as the growing number of corona patients need medical oxygen. It will also take care of future needs. Therefore, the plants are being constructed.
Each plant will make 2 tonnes of oxygen from air per day, which can be supplied to about 200 beds, he said.
On similar lines, five to six plants would be set up in the Gadchiroli district. Each plant will have a capacity of about 1 to 1.5 tonnes per day, Shinde added.
Yesterday the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) had also announced that it was in the process of creating 43 metric tonnes of medical oxygen capacity per day at 12 municipal hospitals in the city based on similar technology. The capacity addition is expected to cost about Rs 90 crore.
MCGM is the municipal authority for Mumbai city.