This is an archive article published on September 12, 2020
No shortage of oxygen for hospitals in Pune district, delayed arrival of tankers a problem: FDA
An average of 350 metric tonne of oxygen for refilling cylinders, and 229 metric tonne liquid oxygen to fill tanks in big hospitals, is produced every day, said an FDA official.
At the weekly briefing on the pandemic, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said five decisions had been taken on the issue of oxygen supply. (Express photo)
The oxygen produced in Pune is enough to meet the district’s daily demand, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Saturday.
“As of now, there is no shortage of medical oxygen for hospitals in Pune district. We are also catering to oxygen demand from hospitals in neighbouring districts, in western Maharashtra and Marathwada,” S V Pratapwar, assistant commissioner of FDA, told The Indian Express on Saturday.
An average of 350 metric tonne of oxygen for refilling cylinders, and 229 metric tonne liquid oxygen to fill tanks in big hospitals, is produced every day, said an FDA official.
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Confirming that there is no shortage of medical oxygen for hospitals in Pune, District Civil Surgeon Dr Ashok Nandapurkar said, “Every day, hospitals in Pune collectively require 313 metric tonne of oxygen while an average of 350 metric tonne of oxygen is produced… there is a slight surplus.”
Once the new oxygen manufacturing plant in Chakan is functional, an additional 100 metric tonne of oxygen will be produced. “This will be a big relief for hospitals…,” said Pratapwar.
Sadashiv Survase, joint director of the Industries Department, said, “The Chakan plant, by a French company, is expected to start around October 9. It has a capacity of producing 200 metric tonne of oxygen. Initially, it will produce 100 metric tonne oxygen…”.
Pratapwar said though the demand, compared to August, has increased by 50 per cent in September, there has not been a situation so far when a hospital has demanded oxygen and the FDA has not been able to supply it. “If hospitals are likely to run out of medical oxygen, they convey us their demand a day in advance. Therefore, we are in a position to provide them required oxygen…,” Pratapwar said, adding that Pune gets between 50-80 metric tonne of oxygen from Raigad also.
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The problem in Pune district was not about shortage of medical oxygen, but unavailability of tankers that transport oxygen to hospitals, he said. “…The tankers provide oxygen to the entire district and other districts. On some days… tanker arrival is delayed, which hinders timely delivery of oxygen to local hospitals,” said Pratapwar.
Nandapurkar added, “The problem is not about shortage but about supply chain disturbance. If tankers which carry oxygen to other districts are held up for some reasons and arrive late, then it creates a problem of distribution locally.”
However, the central government’s recent directive to ensure smooth movement of tankers has been helpful. “The government has directed that oxygen tankers should be allowed free movement. This has helped in quick movement of oxygen tankers from one district to another,” said Pratapwar.
FDA officials said the state government has made it clear that the administration in Pune should cater to oxygen needs of not only this district but also of neighbouring districts. “We can’t reserve required oxygen for Pune district and send the remaining to other districts. The government has made it mandatory for us to provide oxygen every day to other districts as well,” said Pratapwar.
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Meanwhile, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Saturday said every government hospital with 200 beds should have its own oxygen plant. “Either we will provide funds for setting up of the oxygen plant or funds can be made available by the respective district administration. But every 200-bed government hospital should have an oxygen plant of its own,” he said.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
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