BENGALURU: Looking at the oxygen crisis in the state and to ensure that Bengaluru does not go the way of Delhi, where oxygen cylinders are being sold in the black, engineers of a start-up here are helping companies restart their defunct oxygen generation plants to address the immediate shortage.
Around 1,500 engineers from industrial, processing, mechanical and other streams who are a part of Ather Energy -- an electric vehicle start-up -- are talking to companies and hospitals to restart or increase the capacity of existing oxygen plants.
“The lockdown has been announced and there is not much work for us. We thought why not put our expertise and education to best use and we came up with the idea of restarting defunct oxygen plants. It takes a long time to set up a new plant and we don’t have much time in hand. Instead, we can make defunct plants ready in 3-4 days anywhere in the state or neighbouring states,” said Sourabh S, senior manager, strategy.
Talks are still being held with gas producing plants in and around Bengaluru, Mysuru and Hosur and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, he added. Not just from Ather, professionals from other companies too are trying to help the state and country tide over the intense Covid second wave, as they don’t have much work now with the economy being hit.
Another team of engineers from an MNC said, “We are in talks with the government and industries offering maintenance of their oxygen plants so that they can increase their capacity. There has been a crisis earlier with many plants shutting down due to improper handling of plants. Suppliers too have said that their plants are not functioning to their capacity. We are offering them help, so that patients do not suffer.”
A few more engineers, some of whom have lost their jobs during the first wave of the pandemic, are now helping their former colleagues by interacting with hospitals to ensure that the oxygen plants are working.