NEW DELHI: Aiming to boost Delhi’s medical oxygen production and storage facilities, the city government on Thursday floated tender inviting proposals from manufacturers. This comes a week after the government notified its Medical Oxygen Production Promotion Policy to increase the overall availability of medical oxygen, crucial during treatment of critical Covid-19 patients.
Under the policy the AAP government is offering subsidies up to `20 lakh for setting up liquid oxygen generation plants, cryogenic tankers, storage facilities and re-fillers at hospitals and nursing homes across the national capital.
The government aims to set up liquid oxygen generation plants with a minimum capacity of 50 metric tonnes per unit. The total targeted capacity is 100 MT. It also targets installation of non-captive oxygen generation plants (PSA/Air Separation Unit technology) of minimum 10 MT and maximum 50 MT capacity, till total 100 MT capacity is created.
Power subsidy will be given to liquid medical oxygen (LMO) generation plants and non-captive oxygen generation plants at Rs 4 per unit consumed in the manufacturing process for the first five years from the date of commencement of commercial production, according to the policy document.
Full reimbursement of gross State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) will be made to liquid oxygen generation plants and non-captive oxygen generation plants within a month of their commissioning.
The policy also aims to encourage the private sector to set up PSA/ASU plants of minimum 500 LPM (litres per minute) capacity at hospitals and nursing homes to cater to their peak demand for medical oxygen and LMO storage tanks of minimum 10 MT capacity.
To prevent a repeat of the oxygen crisis during the second wave of the pandemic during April-May this year, the city government is in the process of installing oxygen generation plants and increasing hospital beds to accommodate 37,000 cases a day in case of a third wave. Around 7,000 ICU beds are also being added at various health care facilities.