Mumbai to get first oxygen plants in 2 months

An oxygen tanker reaches Seven Hills Hospital. Pic/Satej Shinde

The civic body's first oxygen plant at one of the selected 12 civic hospitals will come up in two months, most likely at Govandi Shatabdi or Kurla Bhabha. Even with the test positivity ratio of the city going down below 10 for the first time since the second wave spread, the number of cases are steady at about 4,000 cases this week. The need for oxygen is still high, and thus the civic body is struggling to bring in liquid oxygen every day to the hospitals in need. But setting up these plants is a struggle for the civic body as there are too many points to be considered from high power consumption to the cost of maintaining them.

The BMC finally has floated tenders for the oxygen plants worth Rs 86 crore, but according to the civic sources, it won't come up for another two months and this is the minimum time for its set up. Not just this, the civic body is now worried thinking about the additional power supply costs that these plants will add to the hospitals.

Further, these plants will work on the Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) method, where it takes in the air and separates the nitrogen, and only uses the oxygen. However, in a move that could cost the civic body too much, the tenders that are floated are for five years, which eventually might not be needed once COVID-19 starts to subside in the country. But defending the move, the officials in charge said that it can't be set up again and again, and thus, they want to station it at one particular place.

One of the civic sources, not willing to be named, said, "We have to now start thinking about the recurring costs. We will be seeking permission for additional power supply from the distributors."