NEW DELHI: Swift response by the Delhi Police to an SOS message sent out regarding shortage of oxygen at one of the city’s major Covid facility Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital averted a potential human tragedy on Saturday. According to the police officials, a message was received from Delhi government appointed nodal officer at the hospital seeking assistance for unhindered movement of two tankers from an oxygen plant in Modinagar of Ghaziabad district in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.
As soon as details of the tanker and driver were shared, the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Shahdara immediately established a contact with the concerned police officials in Ghaziabad to create a green corridor for the movement of the tankers with police escort. Meanwhile, a team was dispatched from Delhi, which took over from UP police team midway and successfully escorted the tanker through the shortest possible route to GTBH within an hour, said an official.
Besides providing food and ration to the needy, the police have been coordinating various hospitals, since the outbreak of the oxygen crisis, and providing oxygen gas cylinders and facilitating tankers ferrying the gas by creating green corridors for them. On Saturday the police facilitated revival of a non-operational oxygen plant in outer Delhi area.
Oxygen plant at Sree Shyam Gas in Mundka was found lying idle for want of liquified oxygen, which had created pressure on the adjoining oxygen plant and led to an increase in waiting time of about 6-8 hours.
“The SHO of Mundka played a crucial role. With the combined efforts of the district police team and revenue department of the west district, the plant was made operational. The team proactively traced the owner of Praveen Mittal during a late night operation and the production was resumed,” said the official.
Persuasion and liasioning efforts of the police and revenue department teams paid off and 10 metric tonnes (MT) oxygen tanker was brought from Panipat. “Three police personnel were already deployed by SHO Mundka in Panipat since Friday morning. The plant was operationalised at around 3 am in the hours of Saturday, where over 95 cylinders were refilled and sent to many hospitals such as Neo Sehgal, Mansa Ram, Maharaja Agrasen, and Deen Dayal Upadhyay, and Rathi Hospitals. The plant is still operational and more than 50 hospitals and nursing homes are utilising its services,” added the official.